Pilot Light
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: Gage gets creative making senior paramedic runs a little easier. A warehouse fire proves just how good a firefighter's mettle can be.


This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Forty Two

42. Pilot Light Season Six- Episode 42 Short summary-  
Gage gets creative making senior paramedic runs a little easier.  
A warehouse fire proves just how good a firefighter's mettle can be.

****WARNING**** The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

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Long Summary-  
Johnny Gage spends the morning fussing about the lack of patient history information the station always seems to suffer on medical calls.  
He vows to come up with a solution. Dixie escapes her busy ER desk long enough to take a shower after a long CPR, trapping Joe Early at multiple phone lines. Squad 51 responds to a call at the police station only to find an unconscious Officer Vince Howard on the floor, barely breathing.  
Dr. Brackett pulls out all the stops diagnosing the patrolman's problem with the help of Roy and Johnny and Howard luckily survives a life threatening hypercalcemic crisis. Johnny re-agonizes over his secret invention that will revolutionize the way paramedics handle medical calls with senior citizens.  
Station 51 answers a warehouse fire with Station 110 and Squad 51 gets trapped inside a breakroom with two victims in heavy smoke with their air running out. Roy treats a hurt paramedic and Gage learns that his private invention has already been submitted by another. Chet does an amazing humanitarian act by coming up with a new protocol idea of his own and creditting Johnny for thinking of it to the chiefs.

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The Story Unfolds...

Season Six, Episode Forty Two.  
Pilot Light Debut Launch: February 1st, 2007.

*  
From: patti keiper Date: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:41 pm Subject: That Irritating Edge.. The sunlight was just beginning to cast its past noon shadows when Henry the basset lifted up his head at the sound of both of Station 51's vehicles returning from a run as they backed up in the vehicle bay.  
By the time the guys filed into the kitchen, the laid back hound had already begun wagging his tail at them from the deep recesses of the chocolate brown vinyl couch.  
"And that's another thing...." said Gage empathetically at Roy as he strode in energetically to the kitchen stove to pour himself a cup of still warming tar thick coffee. "How many times have we, just in this month alone, transported some little old lady or old man without knowing all the facts?"  
Behind him, Chet Kelly and Mike Stoker took to the rec chairs and turned on an active baseball game. Captain Stanley mildly noted Roy and Johnny still going on adamantly about the call they had returned from and just rolled his eyes as he reached over to the fruit bowl on the table. To make a point, he loudly crunched and bit his apple in Johnny's ear, just to bug him.  
DeSoto glanced up at Hank in total agreement. "I agree absolutely, Cap. He's chewing on this bone just a little too much." he said, still worked up. DeSoto sat down in a kitchen chair and stretched out to pull the widely scattered morning paper sections that no one had completely read yet and started organizing them into piles with some agitation. Gage parked a butt cheek on the edge of the table between Cap and Roy and grasped the air with a couple of finger tips, leaning over. "You gotta admit her life depended on us knowing her drug allergies.. Am I wrong?"  
Roy sighed in resignation and stopped fussing with his now neatly stacked pile of printed wood pulp. "Ok.. ok.. You're not wrong. Yes, she could have been a little bit more comfortable with that morphine for her pneumonia induced chest pain, but who are we to further risk her health? She already got into trouble once indirectly because of us. You heard Dr. Brackett. Once he knew we didn't have positive I.D. on our patient, he went into one hundred percent caution mode, just like we did." DeSoto said, stabbing a finger down onto the tabletop.  
"That's exactly my point, Roy. Her quality of care suffered because we didn't have all of her medical facts readily available. She couldn't talk well enough. All the lights weren't on upstairs!" Gage exasperated, tapping a finger against his temple.

DeSoto tossed his head without amusement. "Isn't that usually the case with us?  
People are either in shock, or in some kind of altered level of consciousness and are never in any condition to share their information."  
Gage threw up his hands, beginning to pace again. "Why aren't people just a little bit smarter these days? It only takes a couple of seconds to ...to...to...write down pertinent patient information like current medications and any continuous ongoing medical conditions and pop that note into a purse or something."  
Chet had been listening closely, serious for once. "Well what if you don't carry a purse, Gage? I mean, you won't have one if you're not female."  
Hank jumped in, offering his two cents worth. "And besides that, who's gonna carry a purse or wallet about the house whereever they go so it always stays in the same room with them? Last time I checked nobody's expecting to fall sick at the drop of a hat."  
Gage eyeballed both firemen with sudden speechlessness. "I don't know. I'm just the frustrated working paramedic here. I don't have all the answers."  
Kelly looked up at Johnny. "Well, maybe you should start finding some if you're not happy, Johnny. I know that'll give us all a little peace and quiet this afternoon." he said, dragging a sports section away from Roy's pile of newspaper.  
"Hey, Chet." snapped DeSoto. "Get your own.." he glared.  
Chet ignored him. "Is this paper addressed to you?" he said, holding up the mailing label sticker he instantly tore free. "Since when was 'Care of : Station 51, 2049 E 223rd St and Wilmington' your personal house address?"  
Cap decided enough was enough. "Listen up, guys, pipe it down. All this sniping at each other concerning a bad call's not helping matters, or our appetites." he said, hanging up the phone receiver. "Now I've just ordered a ton of pizza, enough for all of us, as a special treat so we can just try and forget this whole morning. Let's lighten up a little, huh? Bad calls are gonna happen. But at least we didn't lose that sweet old dear when we very well could have."  
"Thank heavens for Narcan.." mumbled Roy under his breath.  
Arf! barked Henry sensing the tension in the room.  
Johnny hushed up and finally took a seat next to Roy, and pushed away his untasted coffee mug. "You're right, Cap. It IS stupid beating this dead horse to death."  
"Ain't he already dead?" quipped Kelly.  
"Huh?" asked Gage, squinting at Chet, only half hearing.  
"Never mind.." said the Irishman, licking a thumb so he could turn a page for the latest football statistics when he felt Cap glaring at him.  
Johnny got to his feet and used Henry as a comfortable head pillow while he laid himself down on his back to take a nap on the couch. The large tan and white dog let him, wagging his tail in rich pleasure, pleased to no end that somebody was finally paying attention to him. "Be that as it may, you guys. I'm bound and determined to solve this dilemma and nip this continually irritating missing facts on a rescue call effect, right in the butt."  
"Yeah, well, I wish you all the luck on that." Cap said, starting to set out plates enough for six. "The day any fire station ever has all of their critically needed on-scene information, is the day I become a happy man."  
Chet looked up with a quip. "Gage, You'd better hurry up then."  
Cap snapped a dish towel at Kelly to shut his trap.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie McCall sighed as she dragged herself back to the main ER desk to catch up on her charting work. Dr. Early, reviewing and cataloging the week's paramedic rescue call audio reels, looked up in sympathy. "Been one of those days?" he asked the frazzled nurse.  
"It's been a WEEK of one of those days, Joe. I'm bushed. When's it gonna end?" she moaned in agony.  
Joe looked at his watch, checking the time. "For you? In about four hours,  
eighteen minutes.." he joked.  
"That's not funny and you know it. That's over half a shift away." she whimpered.  
"Yeah, well. If it helps, the rest of us are stuck here right alongside of you."  
he said, beginning to massage some of the aches out of Dixie's shoulders gently in sympathy. "It's been a while since you've worked a code, hasn't it?"  
Dixie just made a face. "Quite frankly, I can't remember the last time I did c.p.r. on someone. Not until today. Now I'm feeling every knot."  
"Next time, order a student nurse to do it." Joe offered.  
"I couldn't. They were all tied up. Believe me, next time Roy and Johnny comes in with an arrest victim, I'm not gonna give them any flack at all about dripping sweat pools onto the treatment room floor." McCall said empathetically.  
"Why don't you take a few minutes off and go grab yourself a shower in the locker room. I'm free for a bit." Early offered.  
"Oh, really?" Dixie said, looked up, still melting in relief under his ministrations.  
"Why not? I can man the phones with the best of them." "Ok.. Sure?" she asked, painfully eager.

Joe nodded, grinning easily.

"Back in ten minutes. Thanks, Joe, you're an absolute lifesaver.."  
Dixie said, worming out of her chair and eagerly dashing down the hall.  
"Last time I checked.." said Joe, waving at her retreating back cheerfully.  
Dr. Early sat down on Dixie's stool and began familiarizing himself with her station, quietly humming to himself happily for his good deed done.  
That's when the phones began to ring.. All of them.

Photo: Cap asking Gage a question at the table. Photo: Chet and Roy checking mail. Photo: Henry peeking over the couch.  
Photo: Dixie, not happy at the desk.  
Photo: Joe, answering a phone with glasses on.

From : patti keiper Sent : Friday, February 16, 2007 4:15 PM Subject : Into The Thick... Joe grabbed for the nearest phone. The red one.  
"Rampart Emergency, This is Dr. Early." he said as he uncradled, then nestled a second phone, the outside line black one, onto his shoulder. "Go ahead." he said into the first receiver.

He repeated his introduction into the second phone and traded receivers back and forth while he gesticated wildly with the rest of his body, trying to get other passing orderlies,  
or nursing students to go into the glass enclosed base station to start a third paramedic call hail.

Joe fell into attentive listening on the rosy phone. "A gas leak!  
Ma'am. Call the fire department. No, wait. Don't call the fire department.  
Just gather up your family and get the h*ll out of there. Go to a neighbor's once you have everybody, then do it." he insisted.

Early shifted to the black line. "Go ahead. This is Rampart Emergency."  
he squinted as he tried to ignore the staff ring on Dixie's white phone linked to the labs, on the desk in front of him. He toggled on its speaker function with an elbow. "ER desk, whose results do you have?"  
he said to that phone's pickup.

The black receiver jarbled something into his ear. "Squad 110? What are you doing way up there? You're legally out of your jurisdiction."  
Joe told the paramedic on the long distance land line. "I don't know how I can authorize an I.V. across county lines. Hold on, go ask Dr.  
Brackett about it." he said, transferring that call to Kel's extension with a few buttons. He tossed that phone down onto the counter top with a clatter.

The white speaker phone nestled in between all of Dixie's open charts, began warbling. ##We have the results on Mrs. Fishmacher, Treatment Room Two...## said the creamy lab phone. ## Po2 levels are still down. Her arterial blood gases are 82 % Sedimentation rates are...## it droned on.

Joe was jiggling now, dancing under the flashing red beacon buzzing above the base station door, angling every free body part upwards in a vain pointing attempt to get somebody who was a doctor or medic equivalent's attention, to answer it.

Finally, Joe said last words to the red phone. "Hang up and get out.  
Now. Your life depends on it." Then he slammed it back into its cradle on the wall.

To the speaker phone, he shared kernels of wisdom. "Have one of your aides transcribe all of your results and run it up here in person.  
Excuse me, I have an emergency call."

##Don't we always?## said the disgruntled lab tech downstairs at Joe's long tedious way of handling his information before he hung up.

Joe practically dove through the glass door to get to the fire station paramedic talk button on the base station's radio receiver. "Unit calling in, repeat. This is Rampart Emergency."

On the opposite corner, another paramedic receiver began hailing.  
The only problem was, that radio was out of arm and leg's reach.  
Joe began to do a fair imitation of a tennis player in a heated match as he ran back and forth between the two transmissions.

##Rampart, this is Squad 99#  
"Go, 99." hurried Joe.  
##Rampart, this is Rescue 10#  
"I read you loud and clear, 10." said Joe,  
beginning to puff as he weaved back and forth to talk to both paramedics simultaneously. "Go ahead."

##Rampart, we have multiple victims of a high impact MVA. Four in number...##

##Rampart, we've a witnessed cardiac arrest in progress. Permission first to insert an esophageal airway.## said the first paramedic team.

"Do it. Then send me a strip after your first countershock." ordered Joe.

##Rampart, Victim One, a male, aged nine.  
Severed left leg that's unsalvagable. Unconscious and being artificially ventilated. Victim Two, female,  
aged seventy one, basilar skull fracture, semi conscious.  
Victim Three...## continued 10's transmission.

Joe began writing notes, with both hands.

Then the third alcove receiver went off, from the main fire department dispatching center and that one, really got Joe's undivided attention.  
Stand by for Official Notification. Los Angeles Center for Seismology. Ritcher Alert.. I repeat, Richter Alert...

Joe Early threw a cup of pencils at the window and finally got a passing Dr. Morton's attention as he hooked get-in-here-right-now fingers at him. Mike hastened to comply.

"Take 10's and 99's. Something big's brewing on the SCU Channel."  
said Early, passing off his two note pads. "99's M.I. is on Alpha.  
I've set aside 10's needs for Beta on the monitor." he said jerking a finger at the Tetronix EKG Telemetry Station that he had flipped on into active receiving. Strips of EKG paper were already beginning to wind around his feet.

##Rampart, he's aspirating#  
reported 99.

##Victim Four has a penetrating evisceration.  
We need a doctor flown out here to stabilize him initially. Mast trousers are contraindicated#  
requested 10.

::Dixie, where are you? Shower fast.:: thought Joe as he and Dr. Morton began to prepare for their worst and most important incoming earthquake transmission. Joe hit a button on the wall intercom that broke into the hospital's general overhead speakers. "Early to all staff. Condition Orange. Condition Orange. Report to your assigned duty departments. Stat. Dr. Brackett, to the base station.."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Where's Cap?" asked Roy.

"In the office." replied Gage. "He was nice enough to let me borrow this."

"Oh.." said DeSoto, putting away their leftover pizza boxes into the refrigerator.

"Fellas, what does this look like to all of you?" asked Johnny,  
half holding up a familiar white plastic shaped bottle as he wrestled a fully paper laden heavy mint green typewriter onto the kitchen table top. He made a lot of noise pushing all their empty dinner dishes aside with an agile free foot to make space for it.

"A type writer." Marco guessed.

"Nope. This other thing I'm carrying..." Johnny redirected them as he set the workhorse machine down heavily.

Kelly looked up from his newspaper for about two seconds.  
"A bottle of Buffrin."

"No, Chet, look beyond the label, that's not gonna be there when I'm through with it. I'm peeling it off and adding one of my own. No, what I'm referring to is....this is a protected,  
sealed container that can hold just about anything. Maybe even something life saving once I'm through with it." Johnny said, getting a little passionate.

Kelly made a face and he began studying Johnny as if he had turned into some kind of fascinating science project. "Gage, do you know how much you're beginning to sound like a qwack here?"

"Well, thanks a lot for the name calling, Chet. I didn't come in here to show all you guys my little something just to h--"

"No..no no, Johnny. Quit taking me so figuratively. I meant that term literally.." Chet said matter of factly.

Gage shot him a dirty look.

Kelly held up surrendering hands when Gage melted him with that glare. "I didn't mean what you're thinking. Stop and think about it.. A qwack : Someone who sells home remedys that do absolutely nothing for the buyer."

"Still doesn't matter. I'm still offended. My idea will definitely mean something to the buyer, and us, too, once I'm through with it."

Chet was still hung up on details. "A qwack, Gage. And I don't mean duck. Remember how they used to go around in covered wagons in the Old West pitching stuff that was pure alcohol and calling it Mr. Farnan's All Fire Cure Tonic and stuff? That's a professional qwack.  
Qwack medicine."

"Do I look like I'm an expert on cowboys, Chet?"

Kelly gave Gage a very odd look.

"No, don't answer that." Johnny sighed, grinning.  
In his head he could hear Chet's reply. ::Well, you are an Indian.:: "Ah,.. gimme a couple of days to get my plan all together and I'll show ya what I mean. I can't believe nobody's ever thought of doing this kind of thing before. My idea's absolutely brilliant. I can't wait to get started on it to submit to the chiefs as an action plan." he said, sitting down and beginning to type and add sentences to his blank sheet eagerly.

"What? Brown nosing McConnike?" said Marco. "You know how that particular angle turned out with Cap."

"Yeah, well, I'm different. I'm not as sensitive about my first name and I certainly.. am not gonna be burning any hats." Johnny said empathetically.

"No, but just don't go around burning down all your bridges before you come to them." Chet said.

The other guys chuckled from whereever they were.

"I don't follow.." said Johnny, frowning in confusion at Kelly and the rest of his crewmates.

"If you suck up to the boss too much, I know that myself for one,  
might get a little envious." Chet said. "And that might go for some of the other guys in this kitchen, too."

"Envious?! Chet, my idea is going to go, in order to try and help people. Now how is that a jealousy problem?"

"You'd be making yourself look good." said Roy without sting.  
"Better than the rest of us guys."

Johnny's mouth flopped wide open. "Roy, I can't believe you just said that. For Pete's sake, you're my partner. I'd never do anything to snub you. Not intentionally." he said, rising to his feet in surprise.

Station 51's engineer piped up.  
"Yeah? Well what about the rest of us? We all have reputations to protect as far as job performance goes in the eyes of higher ups."  
said Stoker.

Gage set both hands on his hips, thoroughly offended, gaping for long seconds. Then he changed tact. "Chet, did I hum and haw and complain when you developed those walk on walls suction cup shoes of yours?"

Kelly finally met Gage's eyes. "They didn't work."

"Yes they did...." ::I got a good laugh.:: "No, uhh. All right. Ok. They didn't because of their..previously unknown....natural affinity for pavement.." he said, the corner of his mouth curling up. "What I'm really getting at is that not once did I ever make a fuss that you were going to the Chiefs with a new invention."

"Geez, Gage. That was real big of ya." Chet said with an edge.

"No! AHhhgh." Johnny grimaced, spinning around in a little circle. "Quit twisting my words around. You know what I meant."

DeSoto popped another potato chip into his mouth. "I think, Chet, what he's trying to tell you is that he was keeping an open mind and was being supportive about your tinkering by not opening his yap and saying anything negative about it."

"That's it! That's it exactly, Roy." Gage smiled hugely, in great relief.  
"Thank you."

Chet looked askance. "Gage can have an open mind? And be supportive?  
That's news to me. Usually he only does that when he's paramedic-ing somebody."

Gage threw up his hands and finally stalked off in search of another table top to set his tiny typewriter on to finish his proposal.

"So what are ya gonna call it?" Chet hollered after the disappearing Johnny.

"...The Bottle Of Health Program..." Johnny shot back from around the corner, still hugging his typewriter protectively.

On the couch, Henry whined nervously and suddenly decided to thump down onto the floor to go follow and comfort Gage, who was still smelling miffed.

They all watched him stretch all four limbs in preparation to go.

Kelly shook his head in casual dismissal. "Still sounds like a qwack."  
he said, turning back to the dishes.

"Give him time." said Roy. "He just might be on to something here."  
he said thoughtfully. "I almost got it figured out what he's aiming at."

Chet quipped. "Well, you're just about the only person who can figure out Gage, man. And that's the truth."

Bark! said Henry.

"Oh, forgive me, Henry. You're the second one who probably can. But then again, you're our dog. You'll love anybody who's actually one of the hands that feeds ya. Won't ya, boy?" he said, affectionately scrubbing the hound's thick hide with all of his water dripping fingers until Henry rolled over right where he was and collapsed, moaning with pleasure.

The tones went off.

-------------------------------------------------------

Photo: A seismic graph.. jiggling.

Photo: Joe Early on the base station receiver.

Photo: A biophone receiver's screen up close.

*Animation*- A typing typewriter and paper.

Photo: Marco and Chet grinning.

Photo: Gage looking put off.

Photo: A massive marina fire by a large body of water.

*  
From: "Derrick"  
Date: Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:46 pm Subject: Helping Friends

##Squad 51, Man down. 21356 South Avalon Boulevard. South Avalon Boulevard. Cross Street 213. Time out: 14:57.## Sam Lanier's voice rang over the loudspeaker.

"Squad 51, 10-4. KMG 365..." Chet said as he answered the call for his crewmates.

"That's the police station, isn't it ?" Gage said to DeSoto as he started up the squad.

"Yep, I wonder what could be going on there." Roy answered.

The squad left the station as usual with its lights and siren on and it was only a short four minute response time to the police station.

The captain was there to meet Johnny and Roy as they entered the sta-  
tion and other officers were standing near the watch commander's office with long looks of concern. It had appeared that one of their fellow officers had taken ill and collapsed.

Captain Drury said to Gage and DeSoto. "One of my men started to feel nauseous and dizzy then bam, he hit the floor like a ton of bricks!  
He went out like a pilot light. He seems to be breathing all right, but we can't get Vince to respond!" the captain said.

"Who'd you say it is again?" Gage said.

"It's Vince!" The captain exclaimed.

The firemen approached Vince, who was lying supine on the floor.  
Scotty was keeping his airway open and Sergeant Tom Staler was taking steps to try to arouse Vince, who was unconscious.

"Hey Vince, your two favorite paramedics are here. They're gonna help you. Can you hear me, Vince?" Sergeant Staler said as he once again vigorously rubbed on his sternum.

"Okay, let's get an airway in and get a set of vitals for Rampart."  
Roy directed Johnny when he saw Vince wasn't feeling that pain.  
Captain Drury directed his crew to get back out on the street on patrol and he told them that he'd keep them posted.

Sgt. Staler and Scotty stayed behind with Vince in case Gage and DeSoto needed their help.

Johnny slipped in an oral airway. He had already hooked up the Ambu-  
Bag to the oxygen tank and turned it on to 15 liters per minute when he saw how Vince was breathing.

"I'll do that.." said one worried policeman close by.

"Okay." smiled Johnny.

Officer Scotty began ventilating Vince while Roy and Johnny recorded vital signs to give to Rampart.

"BP is 90 by palp. Pulse is 120 and a bit weak." Roy said to his partner.

"I got respirations of 26 and labored, he has O2 saturations at 95 percent. I'm now getting a Chemstrip reading of..... 68." Johnny said as he read the color change on it using blood from a pricked finger against the user bottle.

"Okay, you hook him up to the monitor while I contact Rampart."  
said Roy.

Roy plugged the antennae into the biophone and turned the power switch on. The main channel was busy and he heard Squad 116's lead paramedic Al Jacobson finishing up his conversation with Dr. Morton with a major trauma patient from a motorcycle accident. He flipped over to the backup channel and there, Tom Wheeler with Squad 110 was just signing off with Joe Early on their run.

DeSoto waited those few brief seconds and said. "Rampart, County 51. How do you read ?"

##Loud and clear, 51. Go ahead.## Early replied.

"Rampart, we have a 39 year old male, unresponsive, who was found by co-workers. Unconsciousness may be due, we suspect, to possible syncope or hypoglycemia. Bystanders state that he suddenly fell from a standing position and was unconscious and unresponsive for six minutes prior to our arrival. We have initial vitals of : BP 90 by palp, pulse 120 and irreg-  
ular, respirations 26 and irregular. O2 sats are at 95 percent. We've done a Chemstrip and we got a reading of 68. He is on the monitor showing sinus tach at 120 without ectopi. We are ventilating with 100 percent O2 per Ambu-Bag at 15 liters and have inserted an oral airway. Ambulance is just now arriving. We will send you a strip with new vitals to follow."

##Standing by, 51.## Early replied.

"Rampart, this will be Lead II." Roy said as he transmitted the information about Vince's cardiovascular activity from the Datascope through the biophone to Rampart.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In an ironic twist, Dr. Brackett came walking into the base station and said to Dr. Early. "Hey Joe, have you seen Vince around here?"

"Nope, not since he brought in that guy in his custody, from the fight at Carl's Coffee Shop, to you this morning."  
said Joe, studying the EKG paper threading out of the scope through his fingers.

"Well, that guy's ready to go to jail." Kel said. "I'll give them a call." he said about the police station. Then he saw the callsign on Joe's notes. "What does 51 have?"

"Could be a mystery." Joe said sarcastically as he toggled the talk button. "51, this is Rampart." Joe continued.

##Go ahead, Rampart .## Roy answered.

"Start an I.V. D5/W. Then give 1 amp of D50 and transport as soon as possible, keeping us posted. What's your ETA?"

##About 10 minutes, Rampart. Do you want a new set of vitals#  
Roy inquired.

"Let's have them." Early said.

##BP is 90 palp. Pulse is now 116, respirations are 20 with O2 sats at 97 percent. Chemstrip's steady at 68 with the patient still showing sinus tach on the monitor at 116 without ectopi, over?## said DeSoto.

"Copy, 51. Rampart out." Early replied.

Photos: None.

*  
From: "patti keiper" Date: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:03 pm Subject: Blood Powder..

Gage touched Officer Scotty's arm. "You can stop now.  
His breathing's okay and effective now that it's slowed down from that panting."

Scotty set aside the bag valve mask and watched as Johnny placed a high flow non-rebreather over Vince's face and the airway. "What caused him to do that?"

"Could've been a lot of things." said Roy, sweeping down Vince's head, neck and back for blood or spasming that might be there as a result of his awkward fall onto the linoleum and concrete tiles. "Recovery from the wind getting knocked out of him, or a brief airway positional problem,.."

"...or what we're thinking of... The fact that his chemistry's way off. His blood glucose reading's a little low and departing from normal. Can anyone tell me if he's eaten today?" Gage asked,  
keeping tabs on the pulse in Vince's wrist, which was beginning to even back out into a regular rhythm as the Dex 50 I.M. injection began to do its work.

"I don't know for sure. I can send one of my men to go check his locker for his lunch box to see if it's empty." The captain knelt and unclipped Vince's radio, vehicle keys and gun from his belt.

"Yeah, good idea. Go do that. It's important we know what he's ingested and how much." Johnny said, eyeing up Vince's weapon and holster a little uneasily as it stimulated some memories.

DeSoto straightened up, finishing his hands-on injury check. "He's clear, Johnny. I'm finding no bumps, bruising, or open cuts anywhere.  
I don't think he'll need a collar, or our backboard." he told Johnny.

Gage's relief at Vince's improving respiratory state, heartened him into joking a little. "Whoever does if they don't hit something on the way down. Guys falling from Vince's height while being his same muscular build, never seem to hurt themselves."

An officer came back into the office, "Mister, his box is empty. And I know he likes to eat around two thirty."

"Ok, thanks." said Roy.

Mayfair's attendants soon entered the building and rolled their knee high stretcher into the office at a wave from Roy. "He's stable.  
No injuries. But mind his airway." he told them. "He's really out."

"Yes, sir." said one of the red jacketted EMTs. They knelt and cradled Vince under the arms and the back of his feet while they lifted the cool, sweat drenched officer onto the cot.

Gage pulled out the pillow and tucked it under the mattress frame so they could tip his head back over the top edge of the seated gurney to better manage Vince for breathing ease. "He was dyspneic for a while but that's resolved." he shared. "His gum color's staying good."

"All right." said the older man at Vince's head. "Has he vomited?"

"Uh,,.." said the two paramedics, looking around at the floor for staining and also inside a nearby waste can that was still sitting in the middle of the room. Their heads twisted in a search.

But soon, DeSoto spoke. "Not in here at any rate. But watch for it if it should happen." Roy decided finally. "Did you get his wallet? We'll need his medical history if he's got one in there." he asked the EMTs.

"Don't bother. I've got that right here." said Vince's captain, passing over a freshly copied file that his breathless secretary had just rushed in.

"Oh, this is perfect. This is exactly what we need. Thanks." said Gage, remembering his vented frustrations from earlier that morning.

The attendant nodded and the two began wheeling Vince out the door once the displaying EKG monitor and O2 apparatus were piled in at his feet. DeSoto called out after him. "I'll join you in a minute to get another gluc stick." he said.

Johnny sighed as he and Roy packed away their medical gear. "Sorry for the mess of papers.." he told all the officers, indicating the I.V. bag plastic and tubing box, gauze pads and ekg sticker backs littering the floor. "Want us to tidy up?"

"No..no..Quite all right. Environmental can handle this." said the captain.  
"You just go take care of Vince. Can you give us a call once you find out about him? I've got half the force chewing their nails and dillydallying around because they're worried sick about him. Howard's the unofficial station icon and the personal mentor of every rookie cop ever born who's managed to truck through this department."

"We know.." smiled Roy. "We always tell him he's our favorite pointsman."

"And a close friend.." said Gage, hurrying out the door with his active concern still only barely hidden.

The four of them were pacing across the parking lot when a trembler shaking up from deep within the earth, caused them to stumble and snatch at Vince's gurney protectively as it began to roll away from them when their grips on the guide handles were broken.

"Whoa. What was that?" Johnny said, rechecking Vince's airway tube placement when they finally had him steadied.

"At least a 3.0." replied Roy, as he watched motorists on the boulevard react with screeching brakes and wavered driving as they were startled by the small earthquake.

Gage pulled his HT off the clip on his belt to listen to its speaker more closely. "Well, there are no people injured, radio traffic's normal. This must be the predicted shaker told to us by the warning alert we heard earlier."  
Johnny peered up at the sun, and at their distant mountain repeater tower.  
"L.A.'s in monitoring mode on main. Our communication wires are still up over there." he said when he heard no urgent hail begin on priority.

"Radio's still live?"

"Yeah." Gage answered.

"How about the biophone?" Roy asked, fiddling with the EKG dials and its connections.

Johnny opened the box up and set it up quickly in a check while the EMTs loaded Vince into the ambulance. He picked up the phone receiver and blew into it. He got a squeal right back. "It's hot."

"Good. Let's hope it stays that way." DeSoto said, climbing into the rig after Vince.

"Let me know the second he wakes up on the way in." Gage said. "I wanna know what's going on."

"Only a second after I do." Roy promised, taking the resealed biophone from Johnny's hand. "Guys, go Code Three. He's a friend. No one will know we've sped things up a notch."

"Code Two on the report it is.." winked the Mayfair driver.

"Thanks.." said Roy as the door between them closed.

Through the window, he saw Johnny hastening to get behind the squad's driving wheel.

-  
DeSoto had just listened to a complete set of breath sounds when Vince suddenly groaned weakily, protesting the plastic tube in his mouth.

Roy and the cab EMT slid the oxygen mask out of the way. Vince tried to sit up but the cot straps held him down. Sucking in a breath,  
the sick officer pushed out the oral, making gagging sounds. It fell away onto his stomach.

DeSoto quickly held his shoulders so the groggy cop couldn't pull out his I.V. "Easy..Vince. Don't panic. You're not choking at all. That was just a breathing tube." he shouted over the noise of the sirens. When Vince stopped fighting as his breaths returned normally, Roy snatched up his HT. "Johnny, he spat it out." he said, peeling back the vaguely writhing man's eyelids one by one for a fast pupil check. They were both dilated. "Mac, he's okay. Set the mask back into place. He didn't vomit."

##What's his glasgow?## Johnny transmitted.

"Don't know yet. He's non-verbal. Stand by for a bit." Roy shared. DeSoto watched as Vince's hands climbed up to grip his lower abdomen. "Vince?  
Are you hurting right here?" he asked, opening Vince's black uniform shirt and cut away T a little wider so he could undo his belt and pants zipper for a careful lower quadrants check. He found uniform involuntary guarding right above Vince's pubic bone. "That's his bladder."

"Has he voided?" asked the EMT, noticing the finding.

"No. That's odd. He should have done that a long time ago when he blacked out."

"A blockage?"

"Maybe.." replied DeSoto. "Let me try and get a response out of him."  
DeSoto leaned forward, one hand on Vince's abdomen. "Vince? Open your eyes.." Howard didn't, nor did he begin to make noise again. "Can you feel this?" Roy asked, pushing down with a couple of knuckles on the effected area.

Vince's reaction was immediate. He moaned weakily and began to gag.

DeSoto immediately stopped his probing. "There's pain all right. But he's not awake enough to talk about it." he sighed. "Mac, go ahead and take another pressure to see where he's sitting at. This is something new and might be serious. I'll notify Dr. Early."

"Trauma from the fall?"

"No, I'm thinking it's something medical. The cause of all the symptoms the other officers were telling us about."

Mac did so, using a stethoscope. "It's up. Way up. 150/110."

"D*mn.." said Roy. "Metabolic hypertension. I wonder what his electrolytes are doing. His calcium levels must be way off the scale."

DeSoto pulled the monitor closer and found active hypercalcemia dancing across the screen with first degree block and Q T wave abbreviations. He talked to Johnny, fast. "Johnny. Hypercalcemia, urogenital related most likely, with bounding hypertension on palpation. He's still non-verbal, and feeling pain, but he's able to manage his own airway."

##Blocked ureter?## Johnny asked instantly.

"No, his guarding's too wide spread. There's a mass, too, down deep. But it's not pulsatile." answered Roy.

##Ok, let's hope he doesn't sour on us.## said Gage.

::Last thing I want is for Vince to code due to a chemical imbalance. My kingdom for an instant blood lab machine in the ambulance.:: Roy wished, looking at his watch for their estimated E.T.A. as Mac called out what street signs they were passing.

Photos: None.

*  
From: "patti keiper" Date: Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:04 pm Subject: Here's to White Coat Medical Know- How...

Roy DeSoto was ever glad when he finally saw velvet ropes swing open the automatic doors of Rampart's emergency department in response to his ambulance backing up.

Johnny Gage, was even faster, snatching open the rear doors of the Mayfair. "Roy, how is he?"

"He's showing brady now, at 50, with some coving of of his ST-T waves." Roy replied, keeping a hand on Vince's carotid pulse while the EMTs began wheeling him inside the hospital. "His LOC's dropping again. He's at a ten."

Gage took hold of Vince's EKG monitor, and he paced with it so he could study its tracing. "His T waves are a lot wider than they were before."

"Yeah." DeSoto replied. "Came on suddenly, too. Pressure's still elevated. 162 palpated. Breathing okay."

"D*mn, I can't figure out what his underlying problem is. And I thought about it a lot on the way in." Johnny said, keeping a hold on Vince's chin so he wouldn't tongue obstruct at the bumps and jolts the gurney was suffering while it moved.

"That's why we're getting him to the big guns." Roy told him.

"He took that nasopharyngeal okay?" Gage said, checking the liter flow remainder on their resuscitator tank lying in between Police Officer Howard's knees.

Roy nodded. "Didn't even fuss. I put that in because that nausea's growing even with his decreasing consciousness level. I got a sample right here." he said, casting a head at the sealed emesis bag in a catch container under Vince's head nestled inside the stretcher's frame.

"Any blood in it?" Johnny asked.

"Nope, none." DeSoto said in worry.

"Good." said Johnny. He looked up to see Dixie rushing towards them. Her hair was in a freshly damp ponytail around her pinned on nurse's cap.

"Treatment Three." she said no nonsense, already knowing who to expect as a patient. "Joe said he's got Dr. Brackett waiting for you." she said. Uncharacteristically, she reached under Vince's shoulder and pulled out his I.V. bag. She helped carry it, hanging over the bed.

Johnny noticed. "Why aren't you as surprised as we are about seeing Vince today?" he asked in curiosity as they maneuvered a turn around the corner hallway x-ray machine.

"His station's captain called us, fishing for details. I was the one who answered the phone." McCall said, opening the door to the treatment room. "Believe me,  
I may look calm as cookies on the outside, but inside....." Then she leaned down to Vince's ear and whispered to him. "Vince, you've arrived. I promise we'll take really good care of you. I got a hold of only the best." And smirking, she added. "Don't worry about that perp you left with us in Treatment Five. L.A. City took him downtown in a pair of double handcuffs two hours ago.  
And he wasn't looking too happy about it." she joked.

The paramedics thought they saw a few lines around Vince's closed eyes relax out of stress at the end of one of his shallow respirations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the "stabe" room, they found Kel on the phone and two orderlies were present. The no nonsense doctor looked up. "Get him stripped down and warmed up." he told them. Then he finished his phone call. "Betty, I want an endocrinologist, a nephrologist and an oncologist down here for an emergency consultation, stat." Then he hung up the receiver. "Boys...?" he asked Roy and Johnny, as he joined them to place a hand on Vince's clammy forehead. Kel began an eye exam while Dixie switched out Vince's oxygen supply.

DeSoto started talking while Johnny helped the orderlies take off the rest of Vince's uniform. "He's a little worse, doc. The arrythmias are more pronounced."

"Okay.. Stan, get another strip run out for me." he said to one of the men. "Dixie,  
would you read this history and tell me if he's got anything pertinent?" he said, passing the file folder off to her when he recognized the police records markings on it.

"Right away, doctor." Dixie replied.

Kel straightened up from his eye exam. "Roy, did you notice this? Take a look at his right eye."

Roy pulled out his pen light and looked. "What in the world is that?"

Kel smiled, briefly. "That's called band keratopathy, Johnny, I want you to examine this, too, and you'll see some calcium precipitation lying in a horizontal band across the cornea in the palpebral aperture. This is a sure sign of hypercalcemia."

Dixie spoke up. "Kel, he's got nothing remarkable in here. At all."  
she said holding up Vince's police employee file.

"Hmmm." Kel sighed. "Figures. Guess we'll have to do things the hard way and start from scratch."

Roy was thoughtful, thinking where he stood. "Stones, bones, abdominal moans and psychic groans." he mumbled, indicating to Kel where he had found the guarding around the apparent mass in Vince's groin area.

"Huh?" Gage asked him.

Kel chuckled. "Oh, very good. Johnny, he's describing the mnemonic for the constellation of symptoms and signs of hypercalcemia. Don't tell me,  
you learned that while serving in Viet Nam."

"Yeah.. From a very good doctor. Hawkeye Pierce." DeSoto said quietly.

"My predecessor." Brackett's eyes twinkled. "Roy, you called this one right on the money. Cardiac effects include syncope from arrhythmias. Hypercalcemia affects nearly every organ system in the body, but it particularly affects the CNS and kidneys. With very high levels, somnolence, coma, and death may ensue. The CNS effects are due to the direct depressant effect of free calcium in the bloodstream. You were right to rush Vince into the hospital. Any sudden change or rise in calcium levels should've trigger consideration for a more serious condition.  
You saw this spot on."

Roy accepted the compliment with difficulty, because he was worried.

"Is this high calcium causing his hypertension?" Johnny asked.

Doctor Brackett answered while he did percussion thumps and a careful hands on exploration of Vince's damp abdomen. "Yes,.. most likely. Based on what Roy and I are feeling here, presumably from renal dysfunction caused by urinary retention and direct Ca+ ion effected vasoconstriction." Dr. Brackett told him. "Now all we have to do is find out whether or not this abdominal mass is really the cause of this problem, or not."

Gage frowned. "I don't like the way that last part sounded, doc."

Kel agreed. "Neither do I, gentlemen. The two most common causes for Vince's condition are hyperparathyroidism, easily corrected by a surgical neck exploration and removal of one or more parathyroid glands if it's warranted.." he met both of his paramedics' eyes. "...or neoplasmic activity."

"Malignancy?" Dixie mouthed in dismay.  
"Cancer?" said Gage at the same time.

Johnny sucked in a breath.

"I'm afraid so." said Brackett. "I have three very good specialists on the way down here to help determine exactly what, if that second condition pans out in his initial labwork, is going on." He turned to Dixie. "First thing's first. Dixie, I want him set for full volume expansion with constant saline diuresis. I want a second LRS I.V. begun. We'll use this first one that Roy and Johnny started for fluid loading to increase calcium excretion. We've got to get his levels down a.s.a.p. But the second line, I want set aside for an infusion with a concomitant loop diuretic. Uh,...make it standard furosemide."

"What else do you want, Kel?" McCall asked.

"Another med, Pamidronate, 90 mg I.V. over twenty four hours. I want to attack his imbalance from multi-angles. We'll try and use a different bisphosphonate orally later on to inhibit further bone reabsorption after Vince's more awake and feeling a little better." Dr. Brackett said.

McCall wrote down fast notes in Vince's new chart. "Aredia, 90 for one day. And Lasix. 1.0 mg/kg slow I.V. push over 1-2 minutes. Let me know if you want that repeated." she told him.

"I will. With any luck, that diuretic will nip his hypertensive crisis in the butt at the same time." Brackett affirmed. He turned to the orderlies. "Insert a nasogastric tube and aspirate all of Vince's gastric contents. Least we can do is spare him some repeated vomiting. Also, cath him. Let's see if we can relieve that bladder to expose his groin mass a little more. When you're through, one of you remain behind to regularly assess his consciousness level.  
If he goes down any deeper, we'll manage his cerebral edema with intubation and hyperventilation. Dixie, if he does need support again, call Dr. Rivers to perform an arterial cannulation as a monitoring aid during mechanical ventilation if it's needed. We can use it to keep tabs on his Po2 levels or for further intensive care for his developing coma condition and acidosis." ordered Kel.

Dixie bit her pencil. "Do you want a Mannitol drip on standby to stop brain swelling in case of coma?"

"Yeah,..If it happens. 0.2-0.5 g/kg over 15-20 min (1-2.5 mL/kg of 20% solution); after that, repeat after an hour. But we'll only go ahead with that when we have all-inclusive signs that Vince isn't suffering from progressive renal damage.  
When you infuse it, should it become necessary, carefully evaluate his cardiovascular status first, I don't want a sudden dose of mannitol resulting in any fulminating CHF. Vince's ill enough as it is."

"Got it." and the silvery blond nurse busied herself with preparations.

Johnny Gage ambled over and got on the lab phone. He picked it up. "Doc, what do you want for Vince's tests and labwork? I'll call it in for Dixie."

"Thanks, Johnny. Write this down and dictate it to them. Blood glucose,  
every hour. Arterial blood gases, blood pH, potassium, sodium, Blood urea and creatinine, a full blood count, PCV and uroketones. Also tell them I want a blood culture and an amylase study, serum phosphorus, serum alkaline, phosphatase urine, calcium urine phosphate and a PTH. Unrelated, call oncology and tell them I want a PSA level baseline."

::Prostate enzyme?:: Roy thought at that last test. ::That mass might be an enlarged prostate gland. That would explain that retained urine, too:  
he figured. ::Smart to cover that possibility.:: DeSoto realized.

He lifted his head after getting another pressure once Dixie had given Vince his first diuretic injection. "Doc, 134/88."

"That's better." Dr. Brackett said as he watched improving changes on Vince's heart monitor. "Roy, can you call Radiology and get some chest radiographs. I want to rule out sarcoidosis."

"What's that, doc?" Gage asked. "Is that a lymphoma?"

Kel smiled at Johnny's curiosity. "Sarcoidosis is not a form of cancer. It involves inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in various organs in your body. The lumps are called granulomas because they look like grains of sugar or sand. They are very small and can be seen only with a microscope or on x-ray films once they clump up into larger groups. If many granulomas form in an organ, they can affect how the organ works."

"Ah, so you're hunting for signs of acute renal failure in him due to secondary causes that are manifesting away from that area of his body." Johnny guessed.

"Yes, I am." replied Brackett. "Sarcoidosis can occur in almost any part of your body, although it usually affects some organs more than others. It usually starts in one of two places: in the lungs and in the lymph nodes, especially the lymph nodes in your chest cavity. Roy also get some plain plates and films of his pelvis and upper legs, lateral and frontal. I want to know if he has any demineralization, pathologic fractures, bone cysts, or any bony metastases spreading."

"Ok, doc."

"Also call Dialysis. Tell them I want a hemodialysis against a lower calcium concentration dialysate solution for Howard, stat. Maybe that'll be the faster way to lower his soaring plasma calcium levels."

Roy nodded and got talking.

Dixie flew out of the room with her blood samples. "I'm taking these to the lab myself, Kel. I'll stay down there until I have his initial results."

"All right, Dix. Call me in five minutes." said Brackett.

Kel leaned forward and began a detailed neuro exam on Vince with the two paramedics helping him assess Howard's reflexes. They found hypotonia in all of Vince's muscles and moderate lower leg paresis.  
Brackett sighed and stepped back once they were through. "He's entering early coma." he frowned.

Johnny looked up from a probing sweep against Vince's tongue. "He doesn't have a gag reflex, doc. Do you want us to intubate him?"

"Go ahead. Use an EOA. If he's depressed, put him on assisted P.E.E.P.." Brackett said, listening to Howard's cardiac and lung sounds using his stethoscope. "Looks like we're gonna need that CT scan after all."

Roy helped lubricate an airway for Johnny after taking one the proper size out of the crash cart parked near Vince's head. "D- Doc? Uh, if this is renal failure, what are his options for that particular diagnosis?" he said,  
handing it over to his partner. He positioned the limp officer's head back over the edge of the gurney after pulling Vince up on the bed by the shoulders. He was careful not to disturb his many catheters and tubes. When he was through, he aimed his penlight into Vince's mouth while Johnny got to work threading the airway down.

"First of all, I want to rule out all possibilities of malignancy because hypercalcemia caused by a neoplasm tends to be much more serious.  
Often, the hypercalcemia is the immediate cause of death in patients with what we call ectopic PTHrP production, a chemical imbalance caused by a tumor eating into the bone tissue that surrounds it."

"That sounds bad. Real bad." Roy said.

"It is." Brackett told him quite honestly."Those patients rarely survive more than a few weeks or months. Now other conditions such as some of the micro lymphomas are less catastrophic on the body's systems. These patients may live longer but still have a poor prognosis, especially if their serum calcium levels are very high."

Roy looked away, feeling and looking troubled. He didn't met Johnny's eyes when Gage was through getting Vince set on the respirator.

Kel comforted the pair of men whose team he considered one of the best. "There's every chance Vince still has a whole lot going for him. If his calcium levels have been mildly elevated for months or years, then malignancy is an extremely unlikely cause. It could swing the other way quite easily with hyperparathyroidism. If that's the case, then a fairly minor subtotal parathyroidectomy can be performed, or a complete parathyroidectomy can be done with reimplantation of a small amount of that tissue in a forearm."

"Doesn't sound minor. Sounds like it's pretty major..." Johnny frowned.

Kel waved a hand of dismissal. "When a biochemical diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism is made, CT scan, ultrasound, MRI, and radionuclide imaging of the parathyroid gland helps greatly with a surgeon's preoperative localization. When he goes in, he knows exactly where he's headed down to the milimeter. So the incision made is only about two inches long across the neck. Right here." said Kel, demonstrating.

"Wow.. I didn't know that things had changed so much. Seems like all this CT and MRI machinery's just sprung up overnight."

"It has, we've got the first set of test machines and the only ones in active practice right now in the entire nation." Brackett said.

DeSoto was a realist. "But how about that ARF? Vince still might be facing that kidney failure as well, regardless of what's really causing his calcium level fluctuations." Roy said, studying his hands, where he stood by Vince's bed.

"That's always possible." admitted Brackett. "Acute renal failure is always better than any chronic cases, for ARF is reversible as long as a patient is highly polyuric. And we can offset Vince's developing ARF condition if we continue to avoid having him fall into hypovolemia. That's the reason for the massive I.V. fluid loading we're doing right now." he said, throwing a hand at the new I.V. Dixie had set running wide open.

Brackett frowned and uncharacteristically, took Vince's moist hand to offer his patient encouragement. "I'm hoping for some kind of chemical insult, drugs or toxins as being the culprit for causing Vince's ischemic injury to his kidneys, for that would mean that his overall circulatory system still remains normal in every respect with an excellent chance on making a full recovery.  
All we have to do, is find that chemical and counteract it."

"Besides all those blood tests we ran, what can we do to pinpoint something like that?" Roy asked softly. His head shot up when Vince's monitor bleeped out a warning pulse.

An orderly shifted on his stool. "Sorry, that was me. I knocked an EKG lead off, while I was sitting down. He's fine."

Kel, too grabbed a stool, the one by the white lab phone. Roy followed him but found that he couldn't sit or even stand still.

Dr. Brackett told Roy the truth. "Ok, this is probably going to be Vince's clinical course. Remember that pain you found and told Joe about?"

Roy nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, I found his kidneys are normal to large. Enlarged kidneys may be painful when palpated as pain receptors in the capsule of the kidney are getting stretched as the kidney enlarges."

"Was that due to urine retention?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." said Brackett. "I'll be honest with you when I say that I'm unwilling to do any contrast studies of Vince's kidneys by IVP to pinpoint more details."

"Why not?" asked Gage.

"Ironically, the contrast agent can be a nephrotoxin." Kel told them.

Gage sighed in disappointment and rubbed his face in frustration.

Kel was eager to share other options.  
"That IVP renal study isn't necessary to make a diagnosis of ARF . The cause of it can be found from renal biopsy."

"More surgery?" Johnny asked.

"No." Brackett promised. "Renal biopsy can be performed "blindly" through the skin or a micro-incision using ultrasound guidance, via a laparotomy or via laparoscopy. There are some risks associated with this,  
include bleeding as uremic patients have abnormal platelet function because their elevated calcium levels have a tendency to make their platelet proteins less sticky or aggregable."

"So there's hemorrhaging risk." Roy whispered.

Brackett held up his hand to calm DeSoto.  
"A fine needle aspirate performed in an awake unanesthetized patient can sometimes yield prognostic information without the need to perform a biopsy." Kel told him. "And that's gonna be my recommendation to Joe."

Roy and Johnny were not happy, bordering on fearfulness.

Brackett did his best to reassure them. "We'll do everything in our power to make Vince more comfortable while he weathers this crisis. Monitoring may include getting central venous pressures, a PCV/TP, and very close urine volume checks."

Johnny shifted on his chair, growing uncomfortable. "So he's gonna be sick for a while, huh?"

Brackett was gentle while he smiled. "Depending upon the degree of renal damage, his kidneys may repair themselves. The goal of treatment is to sustain life while the pathologic process in the kidneys heals itself."

They all jumped when the lab phone rang.

Brackett picked it up swiftly. He listened for a few seconds, but then his face turned red. "But that's not right, Dixie! I'm looking at all his symptoms and his EKG strip right now. He's definitely acutely hypercalcemic. I don't care what you tell them just tell them I want them to run it again! There is no way in H*ll Vince's serum level is 9 mg/dL. They must have missed something and missed it big time!"

Roy and Johnny rose in concern before they reconsidered and made their way back to Vince's bed to fuss with his blankets and unnecessary vitals signs checking.

Brackett's voice suddenly broke off when he started thinking. "Wait a minute.  
Only 1-2% of total body calcium is in the exchangeable form in circulation, and the rest forms part of the skeleton. And of that percentage, the ionized form calcium binds to urine albumin and only the unbound calcium is biologically active. Dixie,. my G*d. That's it. The serum level must be adjusted for his abnormal albumin levels. Let me call Joe fast and I'll call you right back.." he said eagerly.

Kel hung up the phone and immediately dialed the main ER. "Put me through to Dr. Early. Stat." he snapped into the receiver. That student nurse hastily complied.

Roy and Johnny heard Kel's next words easily despite the quiet room and the hiss of the ventilator."Joe refresh my memory. Serum calcium to correct for albumin levels, what's the conversion factor? Uh, huh.. uh huh.  
Joe, thanks. You probably just saved Vince's life with that recollection.  
How's he doing? He's doing fine. ......Now." he said. "Gotta go." and Dr.  
Brackett was soon on the phone with Dixie in the lab again. "Dixie.  
Tell them they don't have to send someone up for more bloodwork. Tell them this word for word, verbatim. For every 1-g/dL drop in serum albumin below 4 g/dL, measured serum calcium decreases by 0.8 mg/dL. Therefore, to correct for an albumin level of less than 4 g/dL, one should add 0.8 to the measured value of calcium for each 1-g/dL decrease in albumin. Tell those lame brains down there that without this correction, an abnormally high serum calcium level may appear to be normal... Uh, huh. You got it. Tell them to spread that protocol department wide and I want it done today! So what's his level sitting at? Doesn't matter if it's the old results, I'll figure it out. Ok.  
Got it." But then Brackett cocked his head as he listened to something else she told him and soon, he began to smile. "You bet. Thanks, Dix. Yes, I'll tell them. Right away."

"What, doc?" Gage finally asked as they rejoined him.

"Vince's Ca does show that he's in a life threatening hypercalcemic crisis."

"What are his levels at?" Roy asked.  
"15 mg/dL or 3.5-4 mmol/L." Kel reported.

Gage made a face of dismay but Brackett quickly reassured after snapping out an order to the orderlies. "Boys, start massaging his arms and legs. Get his blood moving. His current pathophysiology is indicating that his immobilization will aggravate his hypercalcemia." Then he turned back to Roy and Johnny. "Guys, it's all good news. His serum alkaline phosphatase is coming back low. That means he has a vitamin D excess in his blood."

"What?" Johnny exclaimed. "Then no cancer?"

"Absolutely not." Brackett beamed. "It's either a nephrotoxin ingested or it's sarcoidosis which can be treated effectively for life with mild doses of prednisone to keep plasma calcium levels down by reducing intestinal Ca absorption. All he has to do in that case, is watch his dairy intake and how much time he spends in the sun to restrict Vitamin D."

"And if it's not sarcoidosis?" DeSoto asked, beginning to grin.

"Then it's strictly chemical and there isn't a forensics investigator born in my department who couldn't find a poison on one of my patients. I'll give Shears a call right now to come get external scrapings and hair samples to take with her, a.s.a.p."

"Well, how much danger is Vince in until that mystery substance's found?"  
Gage asked.

"Not much." grinned Brackett. "We've already begun aggressive treatment.  
And I hear dialysis coming down the hall right now to hook him up. The only real risk I'm finding now is that Howard's uremia is interfering with the function of his white blood cells which are low. That may predispose Vince into getting.... a cold."

"A cold? That's it?" Johnny said, gape mouthed with relief.

"That's all." Kel replied. "The evidence now pointing towards that prognosis,  
is overwhelming." bowed Brackett genteelly. "So get out of here and go get some rest. You deserve it, you two. Nice work. I'm sure Vince'll be more than grateful to the both of you for getting to him so fast."

"I'm sure he will be." Roy laughed, gathering up their medical gear from the spot on the floor he had kicked it towards. "Gee, thanks doc, for letting us stick around."

"No problem. That's what friends are for. See you two later on when we figure out what that chemical was."

"Bye." said the two as they left the treatment room and the orderly watching Vince.

They got into the squad, and sat heavily, mulling over what could have been.

Then Johnny said....

-------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*  
From: "Patti" Date: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:32 pm Subject: Security Blankets..

"Is it just me? Or are you counting Vince's lucky stars,too?"  
Gage said, putting on his seat belt thoughtfully.

"I'm definitely acknowledging every spark up there. Howard was d*mn*d lucky that we got there when we did. He wasn't that far away from cardiac arrest a couple of minutes ago. Not with that kind of junctional rhythm." Roy said, still sitting there,  
not really seeing the steering wheel he had twisted to pointing straight ahead under his palms. He started up the squad's ignition. "Are you gonna call the police station? Or do you want me to do it?"

"How about we wait. Vince's barely out of the woods and I for one wanna be able to tell them what it is that's making him sick.  
Don't you?"

"Yeah." DeSoto said. "I guess Dixie'll be fine for fielding that first phone call. We can always use the excuse that we were ...busy on another run or something... and got tied up."

Gage didn't say anything, still very cowed by what he had learned from both his partner and medical director. "You know, I was way off on what I was guessing to be Vince's problem." he finally said as Roy pulled them away from the wall and turned right under Rampart's skyway, heading for the boulevard.

DeSoto looked at him, paying attention closely. "Just what were you thinking it was?"

"Hypoglycemia from previously undiagnosed diabetes.." Johnny answered, pulling some dead skin off of his calloused hands.

DeSoto just smiled.  
"Believe it or not, that was my first guess, too. I wasn't clued in on what was bothering him with any great certainty either until I found that abdominal guarding and moderate pain on palpation.  
His reactions were....well, a little off, ...like someone with a palsy."

"L.A., Squad 51. We're available...."  
Gage nodded, still holding the Converta-Com's receiver mic in his hands. "That was the calcium effecting his mental state."

##Squad 51. *spap* ## replied L.A.

"And his muscles." DeSoto said thoughtfully. "And I thought I had seen everything that could possibly go wrong with a man Vince's age."

Johnny looked up, surprised by the admission. "But you finally guessed it right, Roy, despite not knowing for sure. If I had been in your shoes, I would have still missed it entirely. Even with Vince lying right there directly in front of me." he insisted.

"Yeah, well that hardly makes me feel any better, because one day,  
maybe because of fatigue or complacency, we're both gonna guess wrong about a patient and they might even die for it."

Gage frowned in shock when he realized that real danger, but then he got righteously angry. "Oh, yeah? So let's fight it then. I'm already dead set on fixing that very problem with my new invention idea."

"How's it coming?" DeSoto said, finally relaxing as he rounded the final curve that led to the straight away before their station's drive.

"I've only got to decide where to park it in everybody's house. You know,  
they've got to put it where paramedics and law enforcement and other rescue personnel will find it."

"Find what?"

Gage looked at him in irritation. "I can't tell ya, not yet. It's gotta stay a surprise. I'll tell ya everything once it's in the chief's beefy little hands, or somebody just might run away with my idea themselves."

DeSoto chuckled. "What's the matter? Don't you trust me?"

Gage looked at him. "I trust ya. I trust ya. It's just that....well...I- I."

"Never mind, you don't have to explain yourself to me, Johnny. I understand completely. You just don't have a very trusting nature, that's all.  
And all of us guys, know it." he said, grinning broadly. He waggled his bronze eyebrows for effect after he finished speaking.

Johnny's mouth flopped wide open and he launched into the granddaddy of all scathing self-lectures right into Roy's amused, and listening... ear.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cap, Stoker, and Marco were all standing around the stove, sipping late afternoon coffee while they watched Chet handle a call from the public that wasn't an emergency. In fact, it was the third call from the same old lady that day.

"Ma'am.. Can you hear me all right now?" shouted Chet into the phone receiver from where it hung on the wall. "If your little Trixie's back inside the house and gets out and climbs the tree again, you can always call us back. Ok? Here's our number.. It's (310) 830-3170. Got that? Ok,  
now repeat it back to me.....Yeah,, yeah.. uh, no the last two numbers are seven zero.. Say it again. Uh,,, no that's not it either. Shall I tell you the number again? No ma'am.. I'm not getting short with you.. I'm just trying to help you be able contact us again more easily.. Yes, ma'am. .....Yes, ma'am. I am aware of the fact that your tax paying dollars goes for part of my salary. Yes, ma'am. Tell you what, if your cat ditches you again for the wild blue yonder, try calling the operator and she'll get a hold of us.. Lickety split, I guarantee it." and he hung up quickly.

Roy and Johnny walked into the kitchen just in time to see Chet making a beeline for the chair farthest away from the phone where he happily picked up his deck of solitaire cards again.

"What's his problem?" Gage asked.

"Too much public adoration.." Stoker replied.

Johnny snorted. "Hughh. Don't tell me. Another stuck cat call."

"You got it." Hank replied. "So how did your call go? You two looked bushed."

Roy sat down in Cap's recliner and he found he suddenly didn't care that he hadn't asked Hank's permission to use it in his weariness. "Guys, we've got some hard news. It was Vince and he was in a bad way after fainting at work."

"Is he all right?" Cap asked, moving to sit on the arm of Roy's chair to offer him his glass of not yet touched lemonade.

Roy took it gratefully, gulping it down. Shivering a little, he let Johnny answer him.

Gage caught Roy's look and he spoke up quietly.  
"He's fine, Cap. He had an electrolyte imbalance and just a little breathing trouble that Brackett cleared up fast." Johnny insisted.

Chet was curious, but worried a bit, as he sat up a little straighter.  
"Did Vince overwork today or something to get himself sun sick? He is outside a lot."

"No, Dr. Brackett said that it was some kind of chemical working on him that did it." Johnny told him.

"That's strange." said Cap. "I wonder what he got into." he wondered,  
thinking about what kinds of chemicals could be around a police station that might be unknowingly toxic.

Marco spoke up. "Maybe we should call him to see how he's doing."

Gage made a face, and reluctantly held up a hand, looking guilty.  
"Ah.. Ya can't. Not yet."

"Why not?" Kelly asked. "I thought you two just got done saying that he was okay, Gage."

"You can't call just yet.. because he's....still intubated.." said Johnny reluctantly, hiding behind Henry's bulk for security.

The gang's reaction, was harsh.

"What?! Johnny, that's not what I call fine. That's-that's FAR from being just fine in my book." said Marco, beginning to grow sharp from where he leaned against a TV chair.

Kelly matched his ire. "Yeah, why'd you both just lie to all of us? He's a good friend of ours. And yours, too, so I thought."

"I didn't lie, guys. I-I told you the truth. Listen to me. Listen to us.  
He's.. not.. gonna.. die.." Johnny said with careful enunciation.

An interval of silence fell like heavy bricks between them.  
Then Roy and Johnny winced at the smack of a large hand on the table top. "Being intubated IS half dead, Gage. I read THAT in the paramedic's manual!" glared Cap.

Johnny looked up, cowed. "Oh, really? Heh.." he laughed weakily.  
"We..we..uh, didn't know that ya had. Heh.." he frowned lopsidedly.  
"Sorry. But we were led to believe that things are gonna be okay.  
Eventually.." he said, holding up both hands in surrender.

Roy rescued his partner. "Cap. Dr. Brackett wasn't worried. Not even in the slightest. And if we both seem tired it's because Johnny and I received quite an earful at the hospital while Vince was getting diagnosed. Doctors seem to like to talk from an entirely different plain of existence. It gets a little too much to handle sometimes."

Johnny snorted. "And how.. But they do nice work, though. He sure saved Howard's n-- uh, rear." he said, amending himself. He snatched up Roy's glass in a toast in Howard's honor. "So here's to Rampart, huh? Another save in the can..." he said quickly and swallowed the juice down in two gulps.

Grumbling, the rest of the guys finally turned away and got back to what they were doing.

Roy came over and sat shoulder to shoulder with Johnny for some moral support. "That went well. Feel any better?" he whispered, helping Gage out as the young paramedic scrubbed Henry's coat vigorously to distract himself.

"Yeah, once the lions calmed down enough to let us feed them." Gage admitted, still irked as he patted Henry's side loudly to burn off a little aggression. Henry just yawned, still entirely happy with the world.

Roy took in a deep breath, and sighed when he felt the eyes of the others finally turn away. "Aren't you glad we decided we weren't gonna be the ones to call the police station about Vince?" DeSoto asked, pouring Johnny another glass of lemonade.

"Yeah..." he replied. "Whole heartedly." Gage replied in relief as he reached for an apple from the fruit bowl.

The tones went off, making no one else jump but Station 51's two paramedics..

It was an all-call. A big one.

---------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*  
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:55:21 -0000 Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive] Into the Hot Zone From: "Robert Gutheim" .com

##Station 51, Truck 127, Station 8, Station 36, Squad 110... Industrial fire at Heating Manufacturers. 510 Winthrop St. 5-1-0 Winthrop St. Cross street Kincaid. Time out : 16:00.##

"Station 51, 10-4, KMG-365." said Hank.

The squad followed the engine out of the garage as they headed for the large three story plant where household heating furnaces were assembled. Soon, they were there.

Captain Stanley went up to the plant manager. "Did you make sure everyone made it out safely?" Cap asked him.

Before the man could answer, another man with a dark skin tone jogged towards them. "Two of my guys are missing, boss. I think they were over by the area where we test units to make sure they work.."

The plant manager spoke up. "Exactly where, Steve?"

"Uh... over there..." he panicked. "..B-Before they are palleted and crated." the terrified guy reported.

"Oh, you mean inside the quality control area. Is that right?" the manager asked.

"Yeah..." Steve stammered. "I can show you exactly where." he offered, starting to turn back towards the burning building in a run.

Cap stopped him firmly by gripping his arm. "Ah.. no. We'll find it. Your job right now, is to keep yourself and the people you got out, safe. Just point us to the right building."

Steve did so, and he coughed as a curl of black, acrid smoke blew into his face.

"Now, get everybody you have moved, upwind, before you all get sick." Hank told the two workers.

They hastened to do it.

Cap glanced around and saw Gage and DeSoto by the squad. And he noticed the squad from 110, pulling up. "Roy! John!..." Cap hollered. When they looked up, he swept a gesture at the road. Nodding with satisfaction, he watched his two paramedics run over to Wheeler and Kirk to fill them in on the plant's general layout as all four of them rejoined Cap for their working orders.

"We've got two victims still in there. Over in a unit test area. Guys, my men are going to tank up to see if they can find them first." Cap instructed the two newcomers. "You're gonna be their relief team if they can't do that in five minutes."

"Okay.." said both firemen from 110's.

When Cap had left to oversee the rest of the firefight, Johnny made a face. "I hate calls like this." Gage muttered as the two of them went to put on their turnout coats and scba bottles.

Roy didn't say anything. He didn't have to.

"Gage, DeSoto, we'll get things set up for you." Wheeler offered,  
throwing open their squad's medical gear doors. His partner, Kirk had already reached inside the truck for a couple of resuscitator apparatuses.

"Go ahead, Tom, Kirk. Thanks." Roy said as he pulled on his gloves.

As they neared the fire, Johnny was introspective. "I'm glad they didn't send us 16's. I'm not sure I could've handled dealing with Brice and Bellingham in a life or death situation." Gage muttered.

"Why? Don't you trust them?" DeSoto quipped. "You told me an hour ago that you didn't trust me. What makes them so different?" he grinned.

"I can live with all your faults. I'm not so sure I can work with theirs."  
Johnny said honestly through his mask.

"Everyone's a critic.." DeSoto mumbled as he felt around a door,  
looking for a way inside.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*  
From: ------------Tandem Post------------------- by Fan Writer Robert Gutheim .com and Patti ETL Host USA via a live Yahoo Instant Messenger Chat Window. Date: Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:47 pm Subject: Four Against One

Once inside, they began searching for the quality control area while a couple firefighters from Station 8 followed close in behind them with a hose, spraying water onto any looming flames they encountered.

"Careful of that hot spot up there!" said 8's anchor as Roy and Johnny started beelining for the first set of heat warping doors they could see.

Roy DeSoto jerked aside as a rafter from the roof, fully ablaze, fell and bounced onto the concrete next to him. "Thanks.." he said as a rich wash of fanning spray cooled him off. "We're gonna try for the main offices first."

"Sounds like a plan." said the fireman.

As they searched the office areas, they marked all doors with chalk marks to show others coming later which rooms had proven empty, and before long, they found themselves in the main plant area. The two air bottled paramedics continued, gasping with their efforts, as they carefully dodged falling machinery and bits of burning plastic.

DeSoto startled when a glove touched him.  
"Roy, how long have we been looking for them?" Gage asked him.

Roy studied his steamed up watch. His voice muffled, he replied.  
"About six minutes. Let's say we search for three more before we retreat to let Wheeler and Kirk have a go."

"Ok,..Fine by me. I'm not getting that hot or tired yet." Johnny said,  
breathing heavily. He pulled out an axe. "I'm gonna go try that door over there. Something tells me that leads to the breakroom. I promise I'll stay within eyesight.."

Roy turned back to see the direction Johnny had indicated, and nodded,  
saying."Hopefully, we'll find them and get out of here." he said, pulling up his turnout's collar a little higher to deflect more heat from the back of his neck.

"Agreed." Gage said as he checked the room after a blow from his axe exposed it. It was empty.

They continued on for half a minute more, before finding an area that looked like an assembly line. As they were pacing along the line, Gage started to hear the warning hooter that they were running low on air.

"Hey, Roy?" Johnny said. "We gotta head back. I'm on the last minute of---"

"Over here!" DeSoto shouted, sweeping his jacketted arm out towards Johnny.  
"I see em. Both are unconscious. Come on, we still have time to lug them out."

"Where are they?!" Gage hollered, getting irritated as he shut off his regulator timer. Right about then, the HT in his pocket crackled. It was Cap. ##Time's up. Now trade off! And that's an order!## Stanley told them over the radio.

"Squad 51 to HT 51. We just found them, Cap, so soon as we pick them up,  
we'll be on our way." Gage replied over the HT.

##Make it fast. The southern exposure's beginning to sag. The roof's going!##

"On our way, Cap." said Roy into his radio. DeSoto gasped and pulled off a glove, feeling the first man's neck where he lay sprawled face down under a tabletop.  
He kicked it aside. "He's alive." he said. Pausing only a few seconds, he placed both hands on either side of the man's ribcage to feel for signs of breathing."He's okay for now. Yours?"

"The same." gasped Gage, stepping onto his man's shoe toes as he stood his victim up against a wall to throw him over his shoulder to nestle in between his air bottle cylinder and his back. "Although neither one of them will stay that way for long. Air's getting real bad in here..... Bad fire..*choke* Bad.." Johnny coughed, groaning under the weight of his not-so-small plant worker. "Let's backtrack the way we came. It's.....still the shortest way outta ..." He never completed his sentence when the path in front of them...disappeared.  
The roar of noise ended in the deep murkiness as a smoke bank cleared.  
Roy looked over it to see better. A large section of the ceiling above had come down in a hail.. blocking their path. Roy re-grabbed his radio.  
"Squad 51 to HT 51. We're cut off from the route we followed coming in,  
should we try and find an alternate route or not?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

::Not good. ::Hank thought as he keyed the mic to reply. "No, stay right where you are. It'll be faster if we cut through, to you. Believe it or not, you're now in the safest place in the whole building. Just get your victims to fresher air and hang tight!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hang tight, he says." grumbled Gage. "Now just what the h*ll are the four of us gonna breathe?"

"We're gonna have to get a little creative. Don't firefighters always think on their feet?" Roy said, leading the way back into the breakroom.

"Yeah.." gasped Johnny. "When they're still standing on them."

"This has got to be the worst,... when the paramedics need rescuing."  
Roy said as he beat a hasty retreat away from the fire with his heavy burden.

"I'm not sure which is worse, a rescue like this, or the time I was bit by that rattlesnake." Gage groaned, running away just as fast, being careful not to smack his victim's head on catwalk railings and obstacles as he went.

"At least for that rattlesnake, you were unconscious.." DeSoto said with a suffering tone. He was growing more and more winded.

Johnny was equally beginning to smother and it showed.  
"If anything, I'm probably lucky I survived it. Did you think it was easy when I was half towards that condition, to get an I.V. started solo?" Gage growled.

"That I.V., wasn't what cured you." Roy told him with a wry look.

"Funny man. Give credit where credit's due. I wanna live long enough to exact a revenge against that old snake with the biggest CO2 extinguisher I can get, later on this summer. Just how am I gonna do that?" Johnny asked.

Roy countered, shouldering the axe ripped and chalked break room door open again. He hefted his man onto a lunch table and lowered his victim's head down as he pushed him off, cushioning it until he was safely onto his side.  
"I haven't figured that part out yet..*cough* Gimme time."

Gage did the same move, kicking the door shut behind them to block off the heat of the flames that were following them. He pulled off his useless mask. But then, his eyes spotted a nearby utility room. He left his unconscious man with his head tilted back over a stack of books."I know... I'll just bet there's a compressed air supply in this hose here they probably to clean all of these sorters. Tanked air, Roy. Stuff to breathe." Johnny said, snatching at one hanging from the smoking ceiling inside the alcove. He tested it with a firm squeeze on its hand triggered nozzle. Air gushed out.

"Eoooww..." DeSoto said, making a face.

"Better oil stinking air than nothing. We may have to breathe it into THEM fairly soon." Johnny said, returning to place a hand on his victim's gasping stomach.

"You can try that first.." Roy pointed as he pulled off his now going dead mask with some relief. "That way, if you die, I'll only have three lives to save, instead of four." DeSoto said, listening by the mouth of his victim carefully. He straightened up when he was assured of effective breathing and he drew out his HT radio from his pocket to set on the table.

"You know, Roy, you're all heart." Gage said as he snatched up the handy talkie. "Squad 51 to HT 51. We've taken shelter inside a breakroom and we think we've found a temporary air supply." He called over the radio to update Cap as to their location.

##10-4. Once we're in, we'll follow your lifelines.##

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*  
From: "Patti" Date: Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:23 pm Subject: Just like MacGyver-

Johnny's victim started coughing, purposefully.  
Both firemen knelt down by the table and opened his soot stained business shirt to see his chest a little better. "Hey,,.." said Roy."Can you hear me?"  
he said as he pulled the books out from under the man's shoulders so he'd be more comfortable.

The worker awoke, completely panic stricken.  
"F--*cough*..Fire! ..Mike,..we've...we've got to get out!"  
he choked, trying to sit up.

Roy and Johnny held his shoulders.. "Easy now, we've got him. We've got both of you out of the fire. So relax!"  
said Gage. "We're somewhere safe for the moment."

The worker gripped his chest as he became more and more alert and more aware of his shortness of breath from smoke inhalation. "..*Gasp.* W-What? *cough*..Oh, you're f-firemen.." he said, breathing fast and hard.

"That's right, now how are you feeling?" DeSoto asked him,  
taking his pulse at his wrist for its count. It was rapid but growing stronger. "Do you have any prior medical conditions that we should be concerned about here, any previous heart problems working on ya?" he asked.

"No...uh,..no...Nothing at ....all like.....that." he gasped. "But...I can't br----"

"That's because you're hyperventilating a little. Try and slow your breathing rate down." Johnny encouraged. "You're doing it too fast."

"I....I.....can't." panted the man, leaning heavily on Roy's front.

Johnny sighed, thought for a few seconds, then he pulled up his scba head harness from where it was dangling around his waist. "Ok, ok... Here, use my air mask. It'll help protect your lungs from all this smoke." Gage said, helping the man put it on.

Roy's eyes quirked into light humor when he realized that Johnny's gear actually had no more air flow going into it. ::Huh, that'll calm the guy down. He'll be breathing in his own carbon dioxide inside of that mask and it should work for us better than a paper bag.:: he smiled. He hid his expression quickly before the man noticed their exchanging amused glances.

Johnny didn't even bat an eye. He just carried things to the next step.  
"There, let me know as soon as you're feeling better, and I'll take it off. Tell me especially when all that hand and mouth tingling goes away, ok?"

"S-Sure..Thanks."  
The mask fitted man nodded..his hands twitching in stress where they gripped Johnny's scba straps tightly.

Gage rolled his eyes and turned to Roy. "Come on, let's get their table pushed against that utility room's door frame so we're nearer to that hose's air supply."

Grunting, Roy and Johnny did so, collectively shoving the long lunch table where their two victims were lying, across the breakroom to its far end where the light of the small access room lit up the carpetting. At best, the flourescent glow was muted from smoke that was slowly building around their heads.

DeSoto coughed. "I'll go plug up the bottom of the breakroom's door with my jacket." he said pulling off his air bottle to set at Johnny's feet. "Too much smoke's coming in." he said.  
Roy emptied his pockets. He set out an oral airway kit that contained eight sizes of C-shaped oropharyngeals and shoved the clear plastic case of Hudsons towards Johnny.

Johnny opened the small box and took one out to size against their unconscious man's jawline. He placed his first guess on his skin in a line from the corner of the man's mouth to the bottom of his earlobe. "He's a 9, Roy. I'm using it." he said to his partner as he slipped the oral in over their second victim's tongue after crossing fingering his mouth open with a thumb and index finger.

"Ok.. Watch his pulse, it's fluctuating. Might be an early M.I. working.  
He's got that kind of grayish color."

Johnny rechecked the still man's carotid and found Roy's irregular beat. He nodded at the finding and looked up at DeSoto again.  
"Wet your turnout while you're doing that, in the janitor's sink over there, Roy. Your jacket'll become a better filter if it's soaked a little more." suggested Johnny as he put Roy's abandoned mask onto the second man's limp face. He picked up the air hose lying on the floor after retrieving a snack bag's twist tie from a nearby garbage can and started working at once. Gage squeezed the hose's hand trigger until its compressed air was flowing lightly and then tied the bar against the nozzle head so that it wouldn't turn off when he let it go. Then he shoved his improvised air supply source between the man's chin and the fire mask so that its nozzle continued injecting its vigorous air stream inside the scba's strapped down faceplate. He left the rest of the ceiling attached air hose lying coiled on top on the man's bared chest so it wouldn't get bumped. "I've got this guy going on the air first. The rest of us, can wait." he said.

Gage got up and paced back out into the breakroom where Roy was patrolling the perimeter, sealing up smoke leaks. "Are you getting hungry? I know I am.."

DeSoto shrugged. "A little. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  
said the blond haired paramedic.

"Yep." said Gage and he saundered over to a vending machine full of candy bars and chips. Taking out his jacket's halligan tool,  
he smashed the glass covering the food, and helped himself.  
"What do you want, Roy? A soda?

"No. I'm not thirsty yet. How about a candy bar? Anything but coconut.."

Johnny swept away the glass landing at his feet with a heel and then he reached into the machine with a gloved hand, gathering what he wanted. "Ok, I claim dibs on these.." he said holding up a bag of Cheetohs. "Gee, Roy. It's a shame all this heat popped that machine open like that. All this food's just gonna go to waste." he remarked.

"Not wasted. It's being put to good use helping a couple of firemen and their fire victims." DeSoto quipped.

Both the paramedics returned back to their patients.

A few minutes later, and finally excess oxygen cured, the first man tore off Johnny's scba mask dramatically. "Oh,,, that's too stuffy..." he complained, swinging his legs over the side of the table as he sat up to pat down feel all of his aches and bruises.

"You're done." Johnny said to him. "How are you feeling now?" he asked the man, still casually chewing on a handful of cheese powdered kernels.

The man sucked in a chest crackling breath, held it, and then slowly let it out experimentally. "Wow, my pain's gone and so's the feeling like I was suffocating. That's amazing."

"Good. Air bottles are handy." remarked Roy.

The man looked at the snack Johnny was eating and made a face. "How can you be eating at at time like this?" he glared. "We're all trapped and dying in a fire here like...like mice in a burning barn.." he insisted.

"We are?" said Johnny, taking in a deep breath. "Roy, do you feeling like you're on the brink of death's door?"

Roy grinned, playing along with Johnny's nonchalant paramedic psychology game. "Not particularly. I'm very comfortable, thanks for asking."

"Good. Cause so am I. And mister, you're feeling okay, too, right along with us, because we've effectively cured you of your sudden panicky breathing attack." Gage told him.

"You did?" The man sputtered with indignation a few times, utterly speechless.

"Yep." said Johnny, drumming musically on the table top with a couple of bored fingers, humming absently for effect.

DeSoto offered a box of Dots to the man. "Here. Eat this sugar. It'll control all your shakes until we can get a D5W I.V. going on ya."

The man gaped at the mention of future medical treatment coming from the two whom he considered as just a couple of county firemen. He blinked in confusion, trying to remember why that was really all right to be hearing that kind of thing, but the new terminology completely escaped him.

"We're both paramedics, yes." Johnny clarified. "It's ok.. This won't bite ya. It's just some candy." Johnny insisted. "If you don't want any, that's fine, we'll eat it all." he said, effecting a fake air of nonchalance as he kicked back on the rear legs of the chair he was sitting in near the worker's friend.

Their calming tricks worked, and the man wilted out of the last of his potentially dangerous overreaction. He gingerly took the box of sweets and without hesitation, he finally tore it open. "I lose my d*mned quarters inside that machine all the time. Guess stealing this now, won't hurt anything."

"That's what fire insurance is for. What's your name?" said Roy, throwing away his candy wrapper into a waste basket near the door of the utility room.

"It's Sean. That's Mike Odegard, my supervisor."

"Tell me something. Has Mike been sick recently?" Roy asked. "Does he ever talk to you about anything health related? Especially anything that might have been bugging him lately."

"Yeah,, he talked about a few things." admitted Sean, the plant worker, as he popped a handful of Dots into his mouth. He picked out a soot cinder from in between his teeth with a fingernail as he chewed and wiped it off against his torn pants. "For starters, Mike's a diabetic. And he's got high blood pressure. He spoke to me once, that on somedays, he can't feel his feet and lower legs while he's walking the line."

"Sounds like those might be TIA symptoms, Roy." said Johnny, glancing at DeSoto. He leaned over, drawing out his penlight to look at Mike's eyes. "Huh. Pupils are equal and reactive. No signs of stroke today despite being exposed to the fire."

Roy turned back to Sean while Johnny leaned down to get a closer listen at Mike's chest for lung sounds by ear. "Can you tell us anything else about his medical history? I didn't find a wallet on him anywhere."

Sean sighed. "We keep those in our lockers when we're on the floor. Yeah,  
Mike told me a lot of things. He's scared for himself about dying, you know what I mean? Everyday, he asks the plant EMT if all the medical gear's ready or not and he always tells him that his nitro's still inside his right front pocket."

"He does? Sweet..." he celebrated.  
Moving, Gage reached into Mike's pants and pulled out the brown bottle.  
"Thanks. This'll help out a whole ton.." he said, unscrewing the cap after making sure it was the man's name on the label with a current date. He doubled checked to see where the man's pressure was sitting at, by feeling around until he got a positive palpation of a wrist pulse. "Roy, I'm using one sublingual. He's over 90 systolic. Mark down the time." he said.

Roy pulled out his pen from his uniform pocket and wrote 'NTG 16:33 x1'  
on the man's shoulder on his skin like a triage notation. "Got it." Then he regripped the man's carotid to monitor any changes. "What does he sound like, Johnny?"

"Mild rhonci. Nothing big. And no burns anywhere." reported Gage as he slid the pill into the man's mouth to watch it dissolve.

Roy began to smile.  
"All right. Pulse's settling now, but he's still got arrythmias.*cough*cough*"

Gage raised his eyebrows. "It's time to swap the air. Roy, you're next, since you've already started coughing." he said, freeing the air hose up.  
"Here. Suck on this a while."

Roy took the flowing nozzle and used it to clean out his chest after he put the end of it into his mouth. It took a few tries to keep his cheeks from puffing out, but it worked. Then he looked up. "So I'm the guinea pig in this little ventilation experiment here, eh?"

"Yep. Your chest's smokier." Gage said no nonsense. "Keep at it. I'll take my turn next, then let's give it to Sean here. Then it's back to Mike's use for a minute or so. We'll do it in that order over and over again until we get all of our everloving butts finally rescued and out of this ignited tinder box."

Sean chuckled hoarsely. "So the fire isn't that bad yet?"

"Oh, it is. Just not where we're holed up. Part of the roof came down out there and cleared away the worst of the flames just outside this room." DeSoto told him.

"So we're lucky then, huh?" Sean asked with worry, holding onto his friend's head protectively.

"Extremely. The best case scenario for entrapment inside a two story warehouse." Gage said, standing up. "Say, who wants some soda pop?  
I still got my axe with me." he said, hefting it up meaningfully.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*  
From: "Patti" Date: Thu Mar 1, 2007 11:10 am Subject: The Thousandth Man...

Twenty minutes later, the handy talkies in both Roy and Johnny's pockets sounded off.

##Engine 51 to HT 51. Pick up your victims and start heading for the southeast corner. The fire in that end of the building has been knocked down.  
One of 110's paramedics are still standing by..## reported Cap firmly.

Johnny startled. ::One of 110's paramedics? What happened to the other one?:: he thought in alarm. But then there was no time for wondering. Gage turned to his patient.  
"Ok, Sean,..there's our cue. How's your chest feeling?"  
Gage asked. "Is it still getting tight?"

The young man nodded. Most of his humorous mood had been scorched away. He was beginning to look sicker. For real. "L-Like I've been chain smoking rubber bands.*choke*"  
the man said, picking his head up off the lunch table.

"Yeah, well, we'll get you'll both on plenty of oxygen once we're outta here and that'll start getting rid of that feeling in you real fast." Gage said. "Do you think you can manage on your own or do you want me to help you?" Johnny said, putting his helmet back on. He paused by the breakroom door,  
feeling around its edges for flaring heat before he even attempted to crack it open to peer out.

"I..I'll ..I can walk, mister. You guys got your hands full... with Mike over there." the worker said empathetically. "Which way.  
are we..... going?" he gasped miserably.

"That way." pointed Roy, putting on his turnout. He picked up Mike and perched him onto his back while Johnny hefted up both the squad's drained scba air bottles. "Let one of us go on ahead of you, Sean. We know what to watch out for in terms of risks. There could be downed power lines, weaknesses in the floor catwalks..."

"Oh, I get the picture. Serious expertise in navigating *cough*  
death traps." Sean replied. "Ok, lead the way. But hurry,..I-I'm feeling kinda..... dizzy again.."

Roy looked at him sharply, eyeing up his color. It was pale but his breathing wasn't fast like it had been before. "That's ok. Maybe a little smoke inhalation. You can sleep all you want once we're out of here and safe. Firefighters are waiting to treat you outside those windows. Can you hold on a few minutes more?"

"I.....think so. I..." Sean's eyes started to close.

Roy lifted his helmeted head. "Johnny, get behind him. He's close to blacking out." DeSoto said.

Gage grabbed Sean's elbow. "Just a little farther. Here, wear my helmet. There are sparks still falling from the ceiling." he said.

Along the way, Johnny and Roy were forced to use an emergency fire hose recessed into a stairwell landing to get to the air open side of the warehouse. Kicking aside the discharged hose, they quickly moved on.

DeSoto got on his radio. "Cap, one unconscious, probable cardiac.  
One downward S.I. We're *gasp* almost to that exterior wall of yours. Smash the glass so we can triangulate.."

##10-4, pal. Stand by. I'll have them pop open a window near you#  
said Stanley. ##Battalion says there's no explosion risk.##

Gage sighed in relief, wiping his sooty face. ::Thank heavens for small mercys. We're still bacon in the frying pan right now.::

A few seconds later, fire crews on the outside of the building used tools to cave in the tall window they had set the working end of a ladder against. It was Truck 127's aerial. The musical tinkling of showering glass under axe blows, annihilating itself, pointed the way out of the smoke.

Sean felt the taller paramedic tapping him on the shoulder. "Have a seat over there. We're going to get your friend out first, all right?"  
Roy asked.

"What about the...the...fire?" Sean asked, weaving dangerously until Johnny helped him sit down on a cindered crated.

"Do you see any around here?" Gage smiled at him. "Put your head down between your knees. This'll only take a second.." he said, turning back to help Roy push Mike into the arms of the firefighters waiting outside the windows. He only saw Kirk the paramedic eagerly grabbing for a carotid on his man. "Where's Wheeler?" Johnny asked him as a team of firemen dragged Odegard out onto the bucket ladder and onto a backboard.

"He got winged by a beam. He's fine. Maybe a dislocated shoulder."  
reported Kirk. "He says he can wait for us on a pain med."

One of the fire lieutenants barked when he noticed something. "Hey,  
this guy's quit breathing on us." he said, feeling Mike's chest.

Kirk turned. "Johnny, go help Roy with your other victim, I already got permission for an endotrachael tube. I'll bag him on the way down.." promised the paramedic from 110 as he knelt inside the aerial bucket to insert the one he had pulled out of his trauma box.

"Ok." said Johnny. "We'll meet you down there to assist. History of hypertension, TIA, and angina! We nitro'd him twenty five minutes ago with some effectiveness!" he shouted as the basket descended to the ground level.

"Got it. I saw the note Roy left.." Kirk said, patting Mike's shoulder.  
"See you in a few.."

"I'll meet you down there.." Johnny promised, not happy that he was being separated from an arresting victim.

He was only partially contented that the basket firemen never started up on chest compressions on the lift down.

::Ok, so he's gonna keep that pulse..:: Johnny thought finally.  
Gage turned and went back inside the warehouse. "Sean, he's out.  
It's your turn. We're going down these stairs. Firefighters have already checked them out for solid integrity and they've already cooled them down for us. Let's go."

"But aren't we going that way?" Sean frowned weakily, pointing at the open sunset lit shattered window frame.

"No, we're on a second story. And the basket team's busy with Mike.  
Come on, put your arms around our shoulders." Johnny ordered.

Sean did so, and soon, the two paramedics were moving down the catwalk to the fire exit stairwell at the end. The fresh air of the outside was too rich for Sean, and he sagged a few feet outside the door when his adrenalin terrors finally ran out. Roy caught him and slung him over his back. Johnny knelt by Sean's dangling head only long enough to see that he was still breathing."He's ok,..still moving it. Keep going." he said. "I'll go help Kirk out with the other guy."

"I'll handle him and Wheeler." DeSoto confirmed as another firefighter rushed up to help him shoulder carry Sean over to the treatment tarps laid out on between the two gear doors open, waiting squads. Roy dropped their two air bottles like a sack of potatoes as Cap rushed up to get a report. "I saved them, Cap."

"I can see that.." said Hank appreciably as he took off DeSoto's helmet.

DeSoto felt happy enough to joke around a little. "I meant the scba gear,  
Cap. Not the victims, they're already a given--- HaccCCK..*cough*"

"Easy, Roy.. Marco's got the O2 set out. Let me take him." Hank said. "I want you to grab a few pulls off a resuscitator before you start treating anybody." he told him. Roy and Cap traded places in their shoulder carry of Sean. "You seem to be worse off than Gage is. I got another rescue squad on the way to take over for all four of ya. But they won't get here for another six minutes. Same goes for a couple of ambulances. Once they're here, you and Gage go in, too, and get yourselves seen."

Roy didn't resist. He just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other one the rest of the way to the street. "Ok, Cap. Thanks."

Soon, Roy was on the phone with Rampart and wearing dry turnout that Chet had traded out with him. "Rampart, this is Rescue 51. How do you read?"

Dixie McCall answered. ##51, I read you loud and clear, go ahead.##

Roy sighed in relief at the sound of her voice and he started giving out his data. "Rampart, I've two patients, One: A twenty nine year old male,  
approximately 155 pounds, victim of smoke inhalation, the second, is a Code I, injured shoulder. Stand by for vital signs..*cough*"

##Standing by..## said the head nurse. ##Dr. Brackett's on his way.##

DeSoto glanced across the street and he noticed Johnny on the line to the hospital, too, using 110's biophone. He smiled when he noticed Johnny sucking breaths off a spare demand valve in between transmissions.  
A glance told him that Mike Odegard wasn't getting any worse. He was still being bagged but no one was watching his EKG monitor like a hawk like they could have been doing. ::Still no dangerous rhythm showing up?... Well, that's a point in our favor. We've been so lucky with him....:: he thought.

Feeling his good mood returning, Roy spoke to Wheeler who was still lying on the ground where he had been left, wincing and holding his shoulder. "So, did you lose that bet with Johnny about getting hurt or not this month working a scene?"

Wheeler chuckled, his face twisting in both pain and amusement.  
"It's a.. .Come on now, don't make me laugh....it's a tie. He's going in for mild smoke inhalation later on, along with you, isn't he?"

"Maybe not. *Cough* I'm worse than he is."

"Then I guess I lost that bet. Fair and ....*wince* square." said the mildly sweating but still smiling paramedic.

"I wouldn't give up on it." said Roy, taking Sean's BP with a stethoscope.  
"Johnny's klutz gene is still a working sure thing. You can still make a lot of money off of him. And so can I."

Wheeler started outright laughing at that, and smothering screams, until Roy took sympathy on him. "Ok, settle down some of that mirth. I'm coming over there to give you your MS." he said. "Want some versed to forget about that bad shoulder for a while?" he asked as he watched Marco begin to ventilate Sean some on oxygen.

"No.. G*d, no.. I wanna study Gage some more. Maybe he'll still pass out from smoke exposure and invalidate our running bet. Just the numbing will do."  
Wheeler said, shifting his position where he lay on his crewmates' spare turnouts. "Here, put it in my left arm. It hurts less."

"Sure thing." Roy grinned. "And don't worry about your shoulder. It's not broken from the angle I'm seeing on it. That knob's too pronounced to be anything else but that simple dislocation Kirk's already told us about."  
DeSoto shared as he swabbed down and injected morphine.

"I diagnosed that, too. I'll let you know if that hand starts to fall....a...sleep." said the paramedic slowly as Roy's pain med began to work on him.

"You do that." Roy said to him. Then under his breath, he muttered. "If you can.. although I don't think it'll be just your hand that might fall asleep here." he smiled as Paramedic Wheeler's eyes finally drifted shut.

He nodded to the firefighter sitting at Wheeler's head to keep some tabs on his vital signs.

Only when his two patients were taken care of, did Roy bother to clear out some of the smoke that was still sitting in his own chest with some oxygen delivered through a self administered nasal cannula.

It was about then that Cap's promised paramedic relief arrived to take over for Squads 51 and 110 for patient transporting.

Roy and Johnny, thoroughly worn out and tired, let Marco drive them into Rampart for their checkup and evaluation, using their station's squad.

-  
Everybody was there at the ER desk when the three of them finally arrived. Dr. Brackett looked up from the notes he had been clarifying with Dixie. "How are you boys feeling? Is it bad this time?" he asked about their smoke exposure.

DeSoto answered for the two of them. "No, just annoying. The O2 has helped us out some." he said, holding up one of two tanks they're were carrying.

"But you both still feel like death warmed over, huh?" Dixie asked.

Gage and DeSoto both sighed at her in agreement and started coughing wetly.

Kel Brackett frowned.  
"Hmmm, that does sound problematic. Dix, can we get them into Treatment Two? I want to get a set of chest films, that's if you two wouldn't mind, after I listen to the both of you to hear what your lungs are doing. I'll decide what else's needed after I've grabbed a better picture."

"Is that a pun?" Dixie quipped at Kel.

Brackett smiled mildly.

"Sure, that room'll open up in about ten minutes." McCall told them all.

"Mike,.." said Dr. Brackett, turning to Dr. Morton, who was still sitting by the base station. monitoring the earthquake traffic. "Would you help me out with Roy and Johnny?"

"Sure, Kel. I'm free. The two patients Roy and Johnny had are already on their way upstairs to CCU and ICU." Morton replied.

"ICU?" Gage asked, surprised. "So Sean's going aspirant?"

"Yeah. Both he and his supervisor were in that smoke a long time even before the two of you found and rescued them. Odegard's fine. He's suffered only a small heart attack. That apnea of his was just due to the smoke."

"That's great news, doc." said Roy.

"And I've got even better news for you, too." said Morton.

"You do?" asked Gage, rubbing the soot off his face.

"Somebody you know's wide awake in Treatment Three and he's fully expecting some visitors."

"Vince!" exclaimed Marco. "Can I come too? The rest of the guys'll wanna know how he's doing and I'm the perfect guy to make that phone call."

Brackett chuckled. "Why not? Johnny and Roy'll show you the way."

-  
Roy and Johnny opened the door and they were incredibly happy to find the familar policeman extubated and resting comfortably in his hospital gown on the gurney.

"Hey, Vince.. How are you doing?" asked Johnny.  
"Are you feeling better yet?" Roy wondered.  
They both said at the same time.

"I'm feeling fine, boys, all thanks to you." said Howard.  
"Hiya, Marco." he waved. Then he turned back to the paramedics.  
"You'll never guess what did it, boys."

"We have an inkling. Don't tell me, it was some kind of chemical."  
DeSoto grinned, folding his elbows together.

"It was, but you'll never guess the culprit. Not in a million years."

"Oh, yeah, well don't keep us in suspense.." said Johnny, a little over eager and impatient. The problem Vince had, had been bothering him all day, even through the quiet moments during the warehouse fire.

Vince looked up, and scratched a rash that the two medics hadn't noticed earlier on his arm. "Ever heard of the topical psoriasis medication, Dovonex?"

Gage's face fell into one of discovery.. "No way.. Well, I'll be..."

Roy equally started to grin with revealment.

Marco was clueless. "So what was it? Ok, so I take it that stuff's a skin ointment of some kind. Sounds harmless enough. So what the h*ll really happened to Vince. Uh," he glanced apologetically to the officer. "Begging your pardon, Howard, but I and the rest of the gang've really wanted to find out." Lopez insisted.

DeSoto demurred. "Vitamin D toxicosis, Marco. That skin medication contains calcipotriol, a synthetic analog of calcitriol..."

Gage continued where he left off. "Which artificially raises the amount of Vitamin D present in the bloodstream if used too heavily.."

Vince nodded in agreement, a little sheepishly. "I was really started to itch.  
I couldn't help myself this morning. Next time, I'll know to use just Calamine Lotion for my condition when it flares up." he said empathetically, scratching a scab or two.

The three firefighters burst out laughing.

-  
An hour later, Roy and Johnny had been seen and taken care of and with their clean bills of health in hand, they made their way to Rampart's cafeteria for some solid snacking food. Along the way, they met Kirk and Wheeler. Marco was still tagging along as their station chauffeur.

"Hey, Wheeler..That was fast." remarked Johnny. "How's the shoulder?"

"This? Oh, fine. fine. popped it back into place and it feels almost as good as new." he said. "This sling's only to remind me that I hurt it today so I don't overdo it. I'm still on duty, same as you." he replied. "So, what's new at the station?"

"Oh, not much.. not much.." said Gage thinking hard about the injury bet that neither one of them were going to collect on this month. "Got an invention in the works for the chiefs..It's going good."

"Really?" asked Kirk. "That's ironic, cause Tommy here's had one cooking, too.  
And it's come to fruitation."

"Oh, yeah?" Gage asked suddenly getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  
"Well, what's it about? Mine's about a new kind of...information gathering system.."

"No kidding, well mine was, too. And the chiefs just got done approving it." said Wheeler, holding his used to be hurt arm absently. "Got a letter of commendation for it."

"Huh..Imagine that." said DeSoto, suddenly interested when he realized that Gage was suddenly dismayed. "What's it called?"

Wheeler grinned proudly and Kirk smacked him on the shoulder proudly, sharing the good feeling with his partner. "Oww,," Charles winced. "Easy, pal. Pat me on the other side if you're going to do that. I'm still sore."

"No, you're not. That's all psychosomatic." Kirk whispered into his ear.

Wheeler ignored his hovering partner and spilled the beans. "I'm calling it the Vial Of Life. You see, the two of us are always sick and tired of taking care of little old blue hairs who can't ever tell us what's going on with them on a rescue call. Now this system is actually a container, that holds...."

Gage's expression fell into one of long suffering and he held up his hand to stop overenthusiastic Wheeler's spiel. "Don't tell me,.. I think I already know.  
Let me take a little guess here..." he sighed miserably. "The Vial-of-Life is a plastic container like the one medicine comes in, right?"

"That's right. H- How'd you know, Johnny. I haven't told anyone else about it yet.  
Except for the chief and good ol Kirky here.".. he bounced on his toes.

Gage pushed his lips into a thin line of disappointment. "I'm a very intelligent man if you haven't figured that one out already."

"Oh, ok." said Wheeler, still completely unoffended and excited. "So can you tell me how I've worked out the rest of it?"

Johnny hung his head, avoiding eyes as his frustrated anger began to build privately. "I think I can. So,..inside these containers there just wouldn't happen to be lists of important medical information for one or all persons in the household,  
would there?"

"Yep. There is." said Kirky.

Gage winced and inwardly, he fumed. ::They stole my idea! They up and stole it:  
But on the outside, he made his lips form one last question. "So, after your window stickers are noticed by the arriving paramedics, where are your containers of information stashed? In the bathroom somewhere?"

Wheeler made a face of negation. "Heck, no. I mean, where's a place that everybody goes to no matter what, that's not a trip going to the sh*tt*r?"

Gage thought about it and came up a complete blank. "I don't know.. Somewhere in the bedroom?"

Kirk grinned. "No man,..in the refrigerator. A bottle looking like a bunch of pills will stand out like a sore thumb for any searching firemen, paramedics or cops because it looks so opposite from a food item."

Johnny was crestfallen. "Yeah, that..that would be the perfect spot." Then under his breath, he muttered. ::Now why didn't I think of that? And why didn't I hurry up about it,  
too?:: he quailed privately, still feeling the sting of being inadvertantly out-competed.  
"Congratulations on getting in an official action plan with the chiefs, Thomas. I'm really proud of ya." he said, taking up Wheeler's good hand into his own and given it a shake of congratulations.

"Gee, thanks, Johnny. I'm still rather surprised at myself for having even thought up the idea." Tom said.

::So was I.:: Johnny thought privately.

Roy decided to rescue his stunned partner. "Well, I'm glad your arm's fixed. My, the three of us are absolutely starving. Geez, is it really six o'clock? Uh, if you'll excuse us, we're gonna go eat something right now." Roy said, pointing to the food line in an animated gesture.

"Oh, sure. Fine by me. Sorry, I was still basking in the moment.." Wheeler said, shaking himself out of a reverie funk. "I still can't believe I'm getting that contract as that program's designer." he said, as he and his squad partner started walking away.

Johnny whirled back around from the tray line he had been escaped to. "You mean you're getting money for submitting this thing?!" he asked incredulously.

Roy grabbed his partner's arm and firmly steered him away before Wheeler noticed the outburst. "Settle down, partner, and quit being such a sore loser. This time, no one cheated on anything. Now let's go eat like truly honorable firemen.." he hissed.  
"...and try to forget about the whole thing."

"Me? I don't think I'm ever going to be able to forget about it." Johnny hissed.

Marco helped to pin Gage's other arm until he got a hold of himself. They didn't let go until the happy paramedic team from 110's had left the room entirely a few seconds later, when they got another rescue call.

-  
A few days later, back at the station, Lopez finally launched a way to cheer up Johnny. "Say Johnny, why don't you go let Henry out before dinner?"  
Marco began.

"Why should I?" Johnny moped.

"Because it's your turn.." Hank glared in an order. "And it's only fair to do an assigned chore handed out without grousing about it."

"Ok...." Gage grumped. He got up and left through the kitchen's side door whistling only briefly to get Henry to hurry up a little on following him outside.

Lopez motioned silently and excitedly to the others after he had disappeared outside and the rest of the gang trailed Gage on tiptoeing shoes down the whole length of the side driveway, waiting for the final moment until.....

"Hey you guys, when did THIS get installed?!" came Johnny's excited surprised voice.

The others laughed outright and jogged over to join him in the backyard near the old engine.

Hank leaned on a telephone pole. "Oh, you mean this little ol thing?" he said,  
tapping his foot on a brand new, sparkling seismography base station scribbling away underneath a newly erected open shed. "Well, I have it on good authority that a curly haired fireman we all know, submitted the idea on behalf of a certain dashing young paramedic standing to my immediate right, that all the firehouses probably needed one each, for a faster, earlier warning and detection system. "

"Chet, is this true?" Johnny asked, his mouth flopping open, moving from his days long moderate festering depression to sudden heart warming tears of surprise.

Chet, dug a toe into the dirt, "Yeah. So...?" he began defensively. "Yeah.. I did.  
Uh,.. I did it just for you, Johnny." he said, on a gentler shy note.

"Why did you go and do a thing like that for me? That's..that's..." he broke off, moved beyond words.

Chet scuffed his hair self consciously. "Marco told me about what Wheeler did ahead of you and I couldn't just let that station make our station look bad. So I...sort of killed two birds with one stone. Nothing wrong with that." he said, finally meeting Johnny's eyes.

"No, there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all." said Stanley proudly.

Kelly swallowed uncomfortably. "Uh, your first check comes in the mail next Saturday for offering up the project, Johnny."

"You know I'm splitting it with ya. Every dime."  
Gage sidled over and gave Chet an affectionate mock knock on the chin with a closed fist of knuckles. "Thanks, Chet. That was real nice of ya."

"No problem." said Chet instantly. "That's what firefighters do. They stick up for each other whenever ANYbody goes down."

FIN

Pilot Light Episode 42, Season Six Emergency Theater Live ------------------------------------------------------------------

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